WORLD / Middle East
Hamas gives amnesty; killings persist
(AP)
Updated: 2007-06-16 14:21
Cheering Hamas supporters wearing green headbands and waving flags surged
through Gaza's streets Friday as Islamic militants in black masks took
over one of President Mahmoud Abbas' offices and rifled through his
bedroom.
Hamas offered amnesty to its defeated foes as violence tapered off from
five days of bloodshed that claimed more than 90 lives. But Fatah leader
Abbas made the split complete by firing the Hamas prime minister, leaving
Palestinians struggling to adjust to a new political reality that has
crushed their long-standing hopes for their own state.
Hamas militants stand on an armored vehicle seized in fighting with
security forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in recent
days, at a rally in Gaza City, Friday, June 15, 2007. The Palestinian
territories have essentially been split into two parts. Gaza is now under
the control of Hamas, an Islamist movement with close ties to Syria and
Iran. The West Bank, home to most of the Palestinian population, is
dominated by the more moderate Fatah, which has ties to Israel and the
West.[AP]
Safe in the West Bank, Abbas moved quickly to cement his rule there after
losing control of Gaza to Hamas forces. He replaced Prime Minister Ismail
Haniyeh, a Hamas member, with Finance Minister Salam Fayyad, a respected
economist, to head a new moderate government.
Hamas, overwhelmingly elected in a 2006 parliament vote, denounced Abbas'
move as a coup. Hamas' supreme leader, Syrian-based Khaled Mashaal, later
said Abbas has legitimacy as an elected president and promised to
cooperate, but warned Fatah against going after Hamas loyalists in the
West Bank.
But Fatah gunmen and security forces allied with Abbas in the West Bank
were prowling that territory looking for Hamas supporters and wrecking a
Hamas radio station.
The sparring made little difference on the ground: The two Palestinian
territories, on either side of Israel, are now separate entities with two
governments �� one run by Hamas and backed by radical Islamic states, and
the other controlled by the Western-supported Fatah.
Abbas received immediate pledges of support from Israel, the U.S., Egypt,
Jordan, the U.N. and Saudi Arabia.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak
by phone that he would take steps to bolster Abbas. Officials in Olmert's
office said he would consider releasing hundreds of millions of dollars
in tax receipts frozen after Hamas came to power.
Though the moderate government that Abbas plans to appoint will have no
say in Gaza, it stands a stronger chance than the Hamas-Fatah coalition
it replaces of restoring foreign aid to the West Bank.
The yearlong aid embargo imposed after the Hamas election victory has
crippled the Palestinian economy, and many Gazans feared they would
become even more isolated and impoverished.
In a West Bank hotel, several Fatah loyalists who fled Gaza sat in the
lobby chain-smoking and worked the phones to set up new lives, hearing
from relatives in Gaza that their homes had been searched.
In Gaza City, a government worker who ran the operations room in the main
police compound, called his old office and pleaded with the new Hamas
rulers to care for the computers. He gave only his first name, Hani,
because he feared for his safety despite Hamas' amnesty offer.
Several thousand Hamas supporters in Gaza cheered as a small armored
personnel carrier seized from Abbas' forces rolled into the Palestinian
legislature compound, where a victory march was held.
A jubilant crowd chanted slogans and waved green Hamas flags as gunmen
fired in the air. Many wore green hats and headbands. Excited children
climbed over the vehicle, and bearded armed men strutted around the
parliamentary building, grinning from ear to ear.
Hamas was both cocky and conciliatory.
It released nine senior Fatah leaders and many lower-ranking activists,
saying it was granting amnesty to its rivals. Hamas spokesman Abu Obeideh
also promised to get BBC journalist Alan Johnston, held since March,
released quickly. He said Hamas has made contact with the captors and is
taking "serious and practical steps" to win his release.
Yet Hamas gunmen also entered the seaside compound used by Abbas on
visits to Gaza, rifling through the president's belongings in his
bedroom, next to his office. They lifted the mattress and searched
drawers.
One gunman sat at the desk of the Fatah leader, who is also known as Abu
Mazen, picked up the phone and pretended to call Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice. "Hello, Rice?" the gunman said. "Here we are in Abu
Mazen's office. Say hello to Abu Mazen for me."
Gaza's streets, deserted during the fighting, were crowded with cars,
pedestrians and triumphant Hamas fighters, some driving in jeeps and
firing in the air.
Haniyeh, the prime minister fired by Abbas, promised to restore security
to the anarchic territory. He urged Gazans to display "self-restraint"
and end the widespread looting of houses and other property of Fatah
officials.
Looters stripped the home of Fatah strongman Mohammed Dahlan of
everything from windows and doors to flowerpots. "This was the house of
the murderer Dahlan that was cleansed by the holy warriors," read
graffiti sprayed on the wall.
Donkey carts outside the house waited to take more loot. Dahlan was in
Egypt when the fighting erupted, and reached the West Bank on Thursday.
Gaza City's Shifa Hospital was still grappling with battle casualties.
More than 90 people were killed in the fighting and dozens wounded. The
morgue was overflowing, with four bodies lined up on the floor, and some
of the wounded were sleeping on cardboard on the floor.
Two men were killed in revenge slayings Friday, including a Fatah gunman
thrown from a roof in what Hamas described as a family grievance �� the
gunman, they said, had killed a member of a Hamas-allied family. Another
Fatah loyalist was shot dead in southern Gaza.
Since Hamas' victory late Thursday, about a dozen Fatah gunmen had been
killed in gangland-style executions, Fatah said.
Before word came of Hamas' amnesty offer, 97 Fatah officials fled in a
fishing boat to Egypt. Others reached Israel via the Erez crossing and
headed to the West Bank.
An Egyptian security delegation left Gaza after failing in its mediation
efforts between the warring Palestinian factions.
Both the United Nations and the European Union reiterated support Friday
for Abbas. Arab League foreign ministers also threw their support behind
Abbas, but urged an immediate halt to infighting so that the unity of
Palestinian lands can be preserved.
Hamas' military takeover of Gaza formalized the separation between Gaza
and the West Bank, and was a major setback to dreams of Palestinian
statehood.
With a larger middle class, more foreign passport holders and more
contact with the outside world, many West Bank residents have long felt
they have little in common with Gaza.
"I expect to have economic development here and poverty there in Gaza,"
Salah Haniyeh, a government employee, said as he watched masked Fatah
gunmen parading in pickup trucks through the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Across the West Bank, Fatah gunmen backed by Abbas-allied security forces
expanded an anti-Hamas sweep. Dozens of Hamas supporters had been seized
by gunmen or arrested by police since Thursday.
In the city of Nablus, a Hamas stronghold, Fatah gunmen set up
checkpoints and barred access to the Hamas-run municipal building. Gunmen
also vandalized a Hamas media office in Nablus, trashing computers and
furniture.
"We will go after them (Hamas) everywhere," said Mouin Hijazi, a Nablus
leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a violent Fatah offshoot. "We
won't allow them to continue existing in the West Bank."
In Gaza, an immediate concern was how long the coastal strip would be
sealed. Gaza's main passenger and cargo crossings, with Egypt and Israel,
were closed this week, and it was not clear when they would reopen.
Extended closure could quickly lead to a humanitarian crisis.
A Hamas spokesman said Palestinian police, now under Hamas command, would
take up positions at the crossings, but it was unlikely Israel would
agree to such a deployment because Hamas militants frequently attacked
the passages in the past.
John Ging, head of U.N. aid operations in Gaza, said his agency would
resume work Saturday. The U.N. Relief and Works Agency provides emergency
food rations and health care to hundreds of thousands of Gazans. He
called for a quick reopening of the Gaza crossings
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