Abbas dissolves unity government with Hamas (4th Roundup)

Jun 14, 2007, 19:07 GMT

Ramallah - Palestinian President Mahmoud late Thursday pulled his Fatah organisation out of the unity government it shared with Hamas after the militant Islamic group overran the Gaza Strip.

Abbas spokesman Tayeb Abdel Rakhim said a decree dissolving the government had been made by Abbas in the West bank city of Ramallah. Abbas now planned to form an emergency administration.

Abbas also declared an emergency in Gaza, where Hamas Thursday had wrested control of two key compounds from Fatah, putting the Gaza Strip largely in the hands of Hamas.

Rakhim said Ismail Haniya of Hamas had been dismissed as prime minister, and the emergency had been declared because of the 'criminal war' being waged in the Gaza Strip by Hamas.

Abbas earlier convened an emergency meeting of Fatah's Central Committee and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Executive Committee in Ramallah.

The committee called on him to pull Fatah out of the unity government with Hamas, formed just three months ago in a bid to end internecine fighting.

Gunmen from the Islamic Hamas movement earlier took over two key Fatah compounds in Gaza City, leaving just two more in the hands of Abbas loyalists.

US Secretary of State Condolezza Rice spoke with Abbas prior to his announcement dissolving the government. Rice offered US support for Palestinian moderates like Abbas willing to make peace with Israel, US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in Washington.

After hours of fighting which killed at least 14 people and wounded dozens more, Hamas overpowered the Preventive Security compound, one of the four major security compounds in Gaza City.

Television pictures on Hamas' al-Aqsa satellite channel showed dozens of members of the force surrendering, trudging out the headquarters bare-chested, their hands on their heads. They ducked briefly as Hamas militants fired over their heads in celebration.

Hours later, the General Intelligence headquarters fell. There was no immediate word on casualties.

The 'conquest' of the compounds meant Gaza was now largely in the hands of the ruling, radical Islamic movement, which which already seized most security posts in the north and south of the Strip as well as along the border with Egypt in the past two days.

Hamas militants also manned several roadblocks along Salah a-Din road, this controlling the Strip's main north-south traffic artery.

'This is the beginning of Islamic rule' over Gaza, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuchri declared in a written statement to reporters.

The headquarters - in what is known as Gaza's 'Security Square' which are still controlled by Fatah - are Abbas' presidential compound, housing his offices and Force 17 Presidential Guard, and the Saraya, the administrative centre Abbas' security forces in Gaza.

Hinting the presidential compound may be Hamas' next target, Nizar Rajan, a local Hamas leader in northern Gaza, announced that Friday prayers would be held in the residence of Abbas.

Hamas' number two leader in exile, Moussa Abu Marzouk denied Hamas was trying to create an Islamic regime in Gaza separated from the West Bank.

Palestinian territory 'is united and will remain,' he told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa in a telephone call. 'We will work to liberate all Palestinian lands.'

Hamas sources later confirmed that its fighters had executed a senior Fatah commander after seizing him in the central Gaza Strip.

Hamas media reported that Samih al-Madhoun, a local leader of Fatah's military wing in northern Gaza Strip, was seized when he tried to pass over a Hamas-run checkpoint in Central Gaza Strip town of al-Nussairat.

The sources said that al-Madhoun refused to stop, opened fire at Hamas gunmen at the roadblock and killed one of them.

Hamas militants responded to the fire, killing al-Madhoun's driver and taking the commander to the house of Hamas man who was shot dead at the checkpoint. He was openly executed at Hamas' fighter house.

Hamas accuses al-Madhoun of staging assaults on its members in northern Gaza Strip and killing a number of them.

Tow months ago, Hamas reached a deal with Fatah to move al-Madhoun and his colleagues from Beit Lahiya town to live in the security zone near President Mahmoud Abbas' office.

Speaking on al-Aqsa over the images of the surrender of the Preventive Security compound, Abu Zuchri spoke of a major 'victory' and a second 'liberation' - the first being from the Jewish settlers evacuated from Gaza under Israel's August 2005 unilateral pullout from the Strip, the second from whom he branded as 'traitors.'

Residents in the area earlier said Hamas fighters using megaphones called on them to 'come down' and see for themselves that the compound was in it hands, declaring the area was now 'safe,' 'clean' and 'removed from corruption-makers.'

While exchanges of fire were also ongoing around the other three Gaza City headquarters, the fighting focused on the Preventive Security, considered Hamas' most hated rival.

It was previously headed by Gaza strongman Mohammed Dahlan, despised by Hamas for past crackdowns against it and alleged corruption. He is believed to laying low in Cairo.

A 13-year-old passerby and a Hamas militant died in exchanges of gunfire in the southern town of Khan Younis, bringing Thursday's death toll to at least 16.

The number of Palestinians killed in vicious internecine clashes since they first resurfaced last Thursday and escalated dramatically Monday numbers at least 86.

Abbas had earlier rejected out of hand some eight conditions posed by Hamas in return for a truce, which included demands that he sack certain security chiefs, another aide said earlier.

On Thursday morning Hamas for its part rejected a proposal to send an international force to the Gaza Strip.

'Hamas is against the deployment of any international force at this time,' Abu Zuchri told dpa, saying his movement would regard such a force as 'occupying army' and deal with it accordingly.