GAZA CITY, 11 March 2007 — Threatening to complicate talks on a Palestinian national unity government a day after caretaker Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh was given another fortnight to form it, gunmen opened fire on the convoy of a Hamas government minister yesterday.
The incident sparked a roadside firefight in which three people were wounded, highlighting the tensions still simmering after months of deadly clashes between rival factions — even as negotiations over a landmark unity government appeared to be nearing a successful conclusion.
One day ahead of his meeting today with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas extended by two weeks the deadline for Haniyeh to form the unity government.
Abbas met in Amman yesterday with King Abdallah who urged both sides “to benefit from the Arab and international efforts in recent weeks to relaunch the peace process and find a just settlement,” Jordan’s Petra news agency said.
Hamas’ exiled political supremo, Khaled Meshaal, meanwhile, visited Sanaa to brief Yemeni leaders on efforts to form a unity government.
Abbas and Haniyeh have met several times over the past week, and Abbas said on Thursday that the government was 99 percent ready and predicted a final agreement within days.
But that was before the latest bout of violence yesterday.
The attack on the convoy of Prison Affairs Minister Wasfi Kabha in the village of Tubas north of Nablus left one of Kabha’s bodyguards injured. Two of the attackers were also injured in the shootout and another two were arrested, security sources said.
Kabha’s ministry denounced the attack, which it called “a cowardly act that violates the national values and morality.” A Hamas statement pointed the finger at Abbas’ Fatah faction.
“The people who fired at the minister are from the ranks of Fatah,” the statement said.
The attack against Kabha came as scores of Fatah supporters and intellectuals rallied in Ramallah against Hamas’ decision to ban a highly regarded book of Palestinian folk tales.
— With input from agencies
