GAZA CITY, 17 March 2007 — Palestinian lawmakers are expected to give a near unanimous vote of confidence today to the incoming unity government that unites the Islamist Hamas and President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party
Palestinians in all walks of life welcomed yesterday the long-awaited announcement of the coalition government after a turbulent 12 months of deadly power struggles, international isolation and economic hardship.
Prime minister-designate and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh will present the new government and its political program to the Parliament today.
After today’s vote, incoming ministers will take the oath of office in Gaza City at 5 p.m. (1500 GMT). West Bank appointees unable to travel to Gaza because of Israeli restrictions will be sworn in the following day in the West Bank.
Hamas will take 12 of the 25 portfolios in the incoming Cabinet, while Abbas’ Fatah faction will take six. Seven ministries, including the powerful finance, foreign affairs and interior posts, will go to independents and smaller factions.
Palestinians hope the new government will usher in an era of calm and economic prosperity after a year of bloodshed and boycott. “The Palestinian people, all their leaders, factions and parties, have passed the stage of barbaric fighting and realized a historic and important national achievement,” the Palestinian Al-Quds daily said.
It underscored that optimism in a cartoon that depicted the new unity government marching through cracks in a stone wall labeled: “International Boycott.”
In the teeming streets and impoverished refugee camps of the Gaza Strip, where the Fatah-Hamas power struggle has been fiercest, residents voiced rare hope.
“We are so happy about the unity government because we don’t want more fighting between Hamas and Fatah,” said Sana Al-Masry, 40, a housewife from Khan Younis in the south of the territory.
“What’s important is that this government succeeds in ending the siege, providing jobs, opening our borders and paying its employees,” she added.
In the Shati refugee camp, poultry farmer Zuhair Abdullah, 52, heaved a sigh of relief. “We are sick of the problems and the suffering we have endured for over a year,” she said. “The time has come to improve the situation for the people.” Despite the landmark Palestinian agreement, however, violence flared again yesterday underscoring the fragile peace in the coastal territory. The armored car carrying the Gaza director of the UN refugee agency John Ging was attacked by gunmen, but no one was injured.
And overnight yesterday, a Fatah-linked intelligence official was killed by masked gunmen in the central Gaza town of Deir Al-Balah, although security sources were quick to insist the shooting stemmed from a family dispute and not from Fatah-Hamas differences.
Medical sources at Al-Aqsa Hospital identified the killed as Hassan Al-Sarhi, 31 and said another person, Mousa Al-Rjelat, 28, was injured in the shooting.
— With input from agencies
