GAZA: Hamas suspended voter registration in the Gaza Strip yesterday in a setback to Palestinian plans for parliamentary and presidential elections and to forging unity with President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement.
Hamas, the group that seized the enclave from Fatah forces in 2007, cited the continued arrest of its members in the West Bank by security forces of the Palestinian Authority, which is led by Abbas.
The Central Election Committee had urged Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to take part in voter registration, due to begin today. Abbas was then expected to issue a decree setting a date for the long-delayed elections. “Hamas decided to temporarily suspend the work of the commission until the obstacles are removed,” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said. “We are still committed to reconciliation and to holding elections but aggressive security measures in the West Bank would lead to an election outcome favoring (Fatah),” he said.
Hamas members in the West Bank, Abu Zuhri said, could not register to vote or monitor the election committee’s activities because of the security crackdown.
Ahmed Assaf, a Fatah spokesman in the West Bank, accused Hamas of retreating from Egyptian-brokered unity deals.
“It means Hamas did not want an election to be held and did not want to move ahead toward reconciliation,” Assaf said.
Fatah also accuses Hamas of holding members of the group in its Gaza jails. Disputes over political detentions by both sides have plagued efforts at unity.
Hani Habib, a political analyst in Gaza, called Hamas’s move “a real setback. It bolsters doubts by the Palestinian public that neither side has good intentions to end the division.”
Meanwhile, the Palestinian self-rule government has detained some 200 people, including security officers, in recent weeks in the biggest crackdown on illegal weapons in the West Bank in five years, a spokesman said yesterday.
Officials say the campaign is unusual because it targets include alleged vigilante gunmen linked to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement. Previously, security forces went mainly after armed supporters of rival groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
Of some 200 people detained since May, just under 100 have been released after surrendering their weapons while the others remain in custody, said police spokesman Adnan Damiri. In all, about 100 guns have been seized, he said.
The weapons roundup was sparked by a shooting attack in May on the house of the governor of the Jenin district, Kadoura Mousa, who later died of a heart attack. Damiri said suspects in that shooting are among those in detention.
Others are being held on suspicion of illegal weapons dealing, extortion and attacks on security officers, he said.
The operation focuses on the Jenin district, the largest contiguous area under Palestinian self-rule. Israel retains overall control of the West Bank, a territory it captured in 1967, along with the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem. Palestinians have limited autonomy in 38 percent of the West Bank.
The performance of Abbas' security forces, key to buttressing Palestinian claims for independence, has won praise by Israel in recent years. At the same time, Palestinian officials complain that Israeli restrictions on the movement of the Palestinian security forces and frequent Israeli army incursions into self-rule areas hamper law-and-order efforts.
Jenin saw some of the worst Israeli-Palestinian violence during the second Palestinian uprising a decade ago. At the time, gunmen fighting Israel emerged as local heroes, but also acted with impunity at home, terrorizing other members of the community, residents say.
Palestinian plans for election suffer setback
