RAMALLAH/GAZA CITY, 27 July 2007 — Palestinian National Security Adviser and Fatah strongman in the Gaza Strip Mohammed Dahlan yesterday submitted his resignation to President Mahmoud Abbas as Israeli forces killed six Palestinians.
Dahlan, who was blamed for Fatah’s failure to contain Hamas’ armed groups, told Abbas in his resignation letter: “Because of my personal condition, long absence from work, and health problems I sustained in Israeli jails, I hope that you will accept the end of my mission as a national security adviser. I will always remain a loyal soldier behind you.”
Dahlan said in the statement he sent from a hospital in Serbia, where he has been receiving treatment for his knees, that he “may be staying in hospital for a long time.”
Yesterday was the deadliest day of Israeli violence in the Gaza Strip in three weeks. An Islamic Jihad commander and two of his comrades were killed when an Israeli aircraft fired two missiles into a car in Gaza City. Witnesses said the rockets slammed into the vehicle at an intersection in the southern part of the city and that one bystander was wounded by shrapnel.
Islamic Jihad identified the dead as Omar Al-Khatib, 39, one of the main commanders of its military wing who escaped assassination in an Israeli raid on Tuesday, and two of his comrades, Khalil Al-Doiueifi and Ahmed Al-Balaawi.
An Israeli military spokesman said the airstrike had targeted “members of Islamic Jihad who were involved in terrorist activities against Israel.”
Witnesses and medics later said four Jihad militants were wounded during clashes with Hamas’ Executive Force when they tried to recover their dead comrades’ weapons from the self-styled police. But an Islamic Jihad member downplayed the incident, saying only that an Executive Force officer opened fire by mistake and wounded a local leader of the group, whose condition was not serious.
Israeli tanks and armored vehicles also made an incursion into the Gaza Strip, sparking clashes with Palestinian fighters as bulldozers uprooted olive trees in farmlands in the Rafah area. Sharif Breissi, 33, from the military wing of Hamas was fatally wounded by tank fire around Rafah.
Three Jihad gunmen were wounded in the accompanying Israeli airstrike. At least three Palestinians were arrested.
A Hamas activist was killed later in the day during an Israeli air raid in the southern Gaza Strip.
Twenty-year-old Jihad Al-Shaer was shot dead by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank village of Taqoa, near Bethlehem, when he attacked a soldier at a checkpoint. An Israeli Army spokeswoman said a soldier fell down after the Palestinian tried to stab him and that the Palestinian died after he was “hit” by another soldier.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority and Israel completed preparations for renewed coordination in civil administrative functions between the two sides during a short ceremony in the West Bank city of Qalqilya.
Over the past two weeks, work has resumed in all the West Bank cities, after ties between Israel and the PA were severed following the Hamas victory in the January 2006 elections. The swearing-in of Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad’s government gave the green light for a resumption of cooperation at civil and security levels.
— Additional input from agencies
