GAZA CITY, 4 October 2005 — Deputies yesterday called on President Mahmoud Abbas to sack the Cabinet for failing to stamp out chaos in the streets as Palestinian policemen stormed into Gaza’s Parliament building to demand a crackdown on militants.

The Palestinian Parliament ordered Abbas to appoint a new government because of the current regime’s failure to impose order on spiraling chaos in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The surprise vote came shortly after dozens of armed policemen burst into Parliament to protest against massive insecurity one day after the first deadly internecine clashes since Israel left the Gaza Strip last month.

Deputies voted overwhelmingly by 43 to five in favor of forcing Abbas to reshuffle his Cabinet within two weeks, although the Palestinian Authority president is not obliged to fire his Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei.

MPs considered but discarded a formal censure motion against the government which would have seen Qorei, who is currently abroad, step down immediately.

“We are on the verge of civil war if the situation remains out of control,” said Qaddoura Fares, a reformist legislator with Abbas’ mainstream Fatah movement.

A committee of MPs earlier presented a damning report that Interior Minister Nasr Yousuf had “failed in his mission” and recommended all “incompetent” security chiefs be sacked. Many observers believe Qorei has been living on borrowed time since late February when he only managed to scrape parliamentary approval for his Cabinet, which is stuffed with technocrats.

Despite pledges by Qorei and Abbas to tackle the growing lawlessness in the Palestinian territories, where kidnappings and armed clashes are becoming increasingly frequent, the situation has worsened in recent weeks.

Three people, including a policeman, were killed and more than 50 wounded in Gaza City late Sunday during clashes which exposed the burgeoning tensions between Palestinian security forces and Hamas.

Hamas and other armed factions have repeatedly refused demands to disarm, claiming they will only do so when Israel has left all Palestinian territory despite Israel’s landmark departure from the Gaza Strip on Sept. 12.

Abbas is acutely aware that failure to put the Gaza Strip in order will weaken international support for the creation of an independent state also incorporating the occupied West Bank.

He described Sunday’s events as a “catastrophe” and reiterated his will to put an end to the “phenomenon of carrying weapons.”

The head of an umbrella committee which represents all the Palestinian factions said that Hamas and the ruling Fatah party had agreed to cool things down.

“We have contained the incidents that happened yesterday and all armed men have withdrawn from the streets. Things have calmed down and we are hoping for a return to normal,” Ibrahim Abu Al-Naja told AFP.

The Interior Ministry said it was determined to implement its ban on weapons in public. “This campaign to put an end to the carrying of weapons in public will continue,” said spokesman Tawfiq Abu Khussa.

A security source said the clashes began when Mohammed Rantissi, the son of an assassinated Hamas leader, became embroiled in a dispute with another Palestinian who wanted to use a cash machine before him.

Hamas called the official version of events “lies” and accused the Palestinian Authority of inciting Hamas “even at the price of civil war.”

Tensions between the two were only likely to be exacerbated by an official report that concluded sole blame for a deadly blast at a Hamas rally in the Gaza Strip last month lay with the faction.

A summit between Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon — still on the cards — was shelved after the blast, which Hamas blamed on Israel, carrying out repeated rocket attacks met by Israeli air raids.

Jordan’s King Abdallah postponed a visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories for security reasons, with contacts under way between Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Authority to set a new date for the mission.

— With input from agencies