GAZA CITY, 5 January 2007 — Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh has returned to Gaza City yesterday in response to a new round of factional fighting after assailants targeted three senior Hamas officials in the West Bank, kidnapping one, torching the car of a second and shooting in the air as a third emerged from a mosque, security officials said yesterday.
It was not clear if Haniyeh tried to cross with large sums on money but media reports said that Haniyeh crossed the Egyptian crossing border after undergoing unprecedented security measures to ensure that he was not bringing in money.
The measures were planned by representatives of Israel, Palestinian Authority, the United States and the European Union.
Haniyeh and his delegation performed Haj in Saudi Arabia.
The return of Haniyeh marks the collapse of the cease-fire between Fatah and Hamas.
Five Palestinians of Fatah movement including a bystander woman were killed when clashes erupted in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday.
A member of the Hamas executive force was killed yesterday afternoon when a gunbattle broke out between members of the executive force that belongs to the current Interior Minister Saeed Siyam and members of the Preventive Security Apparatus loyal to President Abbas.
Medical sources identified the man as Ayman Soboh, 26. Two other people were also wounded during the clashes.
Prime Minister Haniyeh called for calm in the wake of the renewed internal violence, “these clashes must stop, this bloodshed must end and let all of you love one another. Let us resolve differences through dialogue and not with weapons,” he told reporters after retuning to Gaza.
Haniyeh was expected to visit Jordan after the Haj. Jordan offered to host a meeting between Haniyeh and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to try defuse tensions between the political rivals. Both leaders have agreed in principle to such a meeting but no date was set.
Late Wednesday, gunmen kidnapped Deputy Health Minister Bashar Karmi of Hamas in the West Bank town of El Bireh.
Karmi said the kidnappers handcuffed him and placed a hood as they moved him from one location to another, before releasing him five hours later.
The kidnappers warned him that if the fighting continues in Gaza, it will spread to the West Bank, he said.
Also in the West Bank town of Jenin, assailants torched the car of Prisoner Affairs Minister Wasfi Kabaha of Hamas.
It was the third attack on a car owned by Kabaha.
Palestinian journalists in the West Bank yesterday called for the release of a Peruvian photographer who was kidnapped in the Gaza Strip earlier this week.
The photographer, Jaime Razuri, works for the French news agency Agence France-Presse.
About 20 Palestinian journalists gathered in downtown Ramallah yesterday, holding Razuri’s picture and signs reading “We demand that the Palestinian Authority protect journalists.”
Two dozen journalists and other foreigners have been kidnapped in Gaza in the past two years.
