GAZA CITY, 3 April 2006 — The Hamas-led Palestinian government said yesterday that it was determined to put an end to armed chaos and impunity after three people were killed in clashes between rival militants.
Palestinian Interior Minister Said Siam pledged this in reference to Friday’s clashes in the Gaza Strip that also left 36 people wounded after the assassination of a top commander.
“We will ensure that nobody is above the law and demand an end to the instability and armed chaos,” Siam said.
“We are giving the security forces all the authority and power to investigate this ugly crime (the assassination of the commander) and also the three killings and other casualties that followed,” he said, referring to a commission of inquiry set up late Friday.
Later addressing a news conference in Gaza City, Siam ruled out any “security cooperation” with Israel at a “national level” but did say he was not opposed to coordinating with the Jewish state on day-to-day matters.
“We are against any security cooperation with Israel at the national level,” Siam said, four days after taking office.
But the minister added that he was not opposed to cooperation with the Jewish state on “daily matters” such as water, electricity and health matters.
Israel, like the West, has refused to deal with the new Hamas government unless the movement recognizes its right to exist, renounces violence and commits to peace agreements signed in the past by the Palestinian Authority.
Israel has imposed crushing economic sanctions against the Palestinian administration, refusing to transfer customs duties collected on its behalf, but has said it will not cut off water and electricity supplies to the territories.
Faced with the weekend of violence in Gaza, the umbrella group of Palestinian factions — the Committee of Islamic and National Forces — also called for an end to instability and armed chaos.
It condemned the war of words between rival groups that followed the murder of the military commander of the Popular Resistance Committees, Khalil Al-Quqa.
“We condemn the accusations being bandied about against different Palestinian groups and affirm our concern for Palestinian unity in confronting the occupation,” a statement said.
“We ask the Interior Ministry to investigate the killing and try those responsible as well as opening investigations into other assassinations and into collaborators.” The mainstream Fatah movement of moderate Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, whose supporters clashed Friday with militants of the Popular Resistance Committees, expressed both concern for Palestinian unity and worry about the bloodshed, which it described as a “red line.” “It is a red line for us. We will not allow anyone to touch it and to use it for his interest and party point of view,” a statement said.
“We confirm our commitment to supporting the Palestinian Authority and imposing the rule of law and back (Prime Minister Ismail) Haniyeh’s government in establishing a commission of inquiry into what happened in Gaza City.”
Meanwhile, two Palestinians, including a seven-year-old boy, were wounded yesterday by Israeli tank fire in the Beit Lahiya area of the northern Gaza Strip, medical sources said.
Palestinian security sources said the pair had been wounded by shrapnel from a shell which landed in a field in the area.
The army has been pounding a self-declared “no-go zone” in northern Gaza in a bid to put a halt to Palestinian rocket attacks from the territory.
It stepped up its shelling last week after an unprecedented attack with a Katyusha rocket, which has a much longer range than the normal makeshift missiles fired from the territory. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli Army about the wounding in Beit Lahiya.
Also yesterday, eight Palestinian children were wounded as Israeli troops opened fire on stone-throwers with rubber bullets during an operation in the northern West Bank, Palestinian sources said.
The incident happened after around 12 military jeeps rolled into the city of Qalqilya and surrounded the home of Mohammed Nazal, a local leader of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades faction, a security source said.
Children threw stones at the troops, who fired back with rubber bullets that left eight children wounded, a medical source said.
Meanwhile, acting Israeli leader Ehud Olmert sought yesterday to calm investors worried by the center-left Labour Party’s claim to run the nation’s finances after its second-place showing in last week’s election. The prospect of Israel’s next budget being drawn up by Labour leader Amir Peretz, who led a costly strike when head of the Histadrut trade union confederation two years ago, has sent shudders through the business community and seen a four-percent fall in the Tel Aviv stock market.
The Israeli media estimate at some $2 billion the cost of the additional social spending being demanded by Labour and two other possible coalition partners — the Pensioners Party and the ultra-Orthodox Shas party — raising fears of higher taxation or a higher budget deficit, or both.
With just 29 MPs in the 120-seat Parliament after its narrow election win, Olmert’s Kadima party will find it difficult to put together a new coalition loyal to his campaign platform of fixing Israel’s final borders by 2010 without Labour at its heart.
In its determination to secure the Finance Ministry so that it can deliver on its own campaign promises to the Israeli poor, Labour, which took 20 seats, insists it has still not entirely given up hope of leading the new government. “There will be no deviation in expenditures; we will not increase the deficit beyond the parameters and the line that have guided economic policy,” Olmert insisted after talks with Bank of Israel Gov. Stanley Fischer.
“We will continue to act with monetary responsibility and fiscal discipline.” But he conceded: “We will have to change priorities regarding social issues.
“We want to bring about a reduction in social gaps, an increase in employment and a reduction in the number of people in distress.” Fischer said Olmert had assured him that he will continue the “economic principles of the outgoing government.”
— With input from agencies
