Hamas takes control of Gaza; Abbas, Haniya in standoff (1st Lead)

Jun 15, 2007, 5:31 GMT

Gaza/Ramallah - A defiant Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya declared early Friday that he was staying in office, ignoring a decree issued by beleaguered President Mahmoud Abbas that dissolved the unity government between their respective Hamas and Fatah movements.

Haniya's radical Islamic Hamas completed its 'conquest' of the Gaza Strip late Thursday after the last of four major Fatah-controlled headquarters in Gaza City - Abbas' presidential compound on the beach-side in the west - fell to Hamas militants shortly before midnight.

Fatah security officers holed up inside gave up without a fight, Hamas said.

Abbas issued the decree after an emergency meeting of the Fatah Central Committee and Palestine Liberation Organization Executive Committee, spokesman Tayeb Abdel Rahim told reporters in the West Bank city of Ramallah, calling Hamas' battles over Gaza security compounds a 'criminal war.'

Under the Palestinian Basic Law, the emergency situation is valid for one month, after which it would need to be extended by the parliament, which is dominated by Hamas. Abbas was said to be planning the appointment of an independent at the head of an interim cabinet in Haniya's stead.

Terming Abbas' decree 'hasty,' Haniya told a news conference in Gaza that he would continue to head the national government.

He denied Hamas was trying to create a separate Islamic state in the Gaza Strip, saying 'no' to such a state and calling the Strip only part of the Palestinian homeland.

Hamas would restore security in the Gaza Strip, he said, urging the movement's militants and security forces to 'enforce law and order' and protect private property.

Hamas won Palestinian elections in January 2006, but it agreed to a unity government with Fatah in March this year in an effort to end months-long bloody fighting between the two rival movements. Tensions continued, however, and in the latest fighting that has lasted a week, more than 85 people have been killed.

Shortly before the capture of Abbas' compound - which includes his residence, offices and the headquarters of his Force 17 Presidential Guard - the Saraya headquarters fell with masked and uniformed Hamas militants plundering the building, looting weapons, armoured vehicles and documents and carrying away computers.

The other major headquarters, the Preventive Security and General Intelligence, were seized earlier, prompting Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri to declare 'the beginning of Islamic rule' over Gaza and the 'second liberation' of the Strip, the first from Jewish settlers in the summer of 2005 and the second from the 'traitors.'

Fatah militants, meanwhile, shot dead a Hamas member early Friday in Nablus in the West Bank, where Fatah remained the dominant force, as revenge for the killing of a senior local Fatah commander from central Gaza the previous night.

Samih al-Madhoun had run over a Hamas checkpoint, shooting dead a Hamas militant, after which he was captured and taken to the dead man's home, where he was executed him, witnesses said.

The conflict caused countries and organizations around the world to scramble to try to resolve the conflict.

The Arab League has called an emergency session Friday in Cairo and called on the Palestinians 'in the name of all Arabs' to stop the killing.

Calls for peacekeepers for the Gaza Strip were made at the United Nations in New York, and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert discussed an international deployment with him in a telephone call.

Ban said many questions remained to be answered about a potential international deployment, including where such troops would be deployed and what their mission would be while Hamas rejected such a deployment altogether with Zuhri saying Hamas would see it as an occupational force.