Hamas Takes Control of Gaza

Jun 14, 07:04 PM

Current Headlines: GAZA CITY: Hamas fighters yesterday captured one of the last Gaza City bastions of forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and declared the "liberation" of the Gaza Strip.

Majdi Khaldi, an advisor to Abbas currently in Beijing with a delegation led by Palestinian Foreign Minister Ziad Abu Amr, said the president was studying several possible approaches to the situation, including building a new government and asking friendly neighboring countries to intervene in Gaza.

Aides in the West Bank said Abbas was set to formalize the split between Fatah and Hamas by dismissing a three-month-old unity government and putting himself in charge of an emergency cabinet.

The president had already informed Arab states that he intended to end the partnership government.

Green Islamist flags fluttered from the rooftop of the Preventive Security headquarters in Gaza City - a powerful symbol to residents that Hamas had taken control after five days of bloodshed in which more than 80 people have been killed.

In a statement of victory, Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri declared in Gaza: "What happened today in the Preventive Security headquarters was the second liberation of the Gaza Strip, this time from the herds of collaborators," the first being Israel's 2005 pullout of troops and Jewish settlers.

The fighting has brought Palestinians to the brink of a division between an Islamist-controlled Gaza Strip and a West Bank where Abbas's Fatah faction holds sway.

Political commentators on Israel Radio have already dubbed the Gaza Strip "Hamastan".

Hamas said it had also taken control of other Fatah strongholds across Gaza, including a security office in the southern town of Rafah on the Egyptian border.

Only Abbas's presidential compound in Gaza City - he is currently in the West Bank city of Ramallah - and the headquarters of the Fatah-dominated Force 17 remained under Fatah control last night.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Ziad Abu Amr, currently in Beijing, was forced to cut short his multi-nation trip and is scheduled to fly home today, abandoning plans to visit Russia and several European countries in an effort to bring an end to the financial embargo that has crippled the Palestinian territories.

Yesterday Amr met with Premier Wen Jiabao and Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, briefing the Chinese leaders on the situation in Gaza.

After their meeting Yang said the fighting was "worrying", and urged the Palestinian factions to show restraint.

He said China hoped the "various factions in Palestine will take active measures to build mutual trust and create favorable conditions for resuming peace talks with Israel."

Yang reconfirmed China's support for the Palestinian people and said China was willing to play a constructive role in bringing peace to the Middle East, adding that Beijing supports the recently revived Arab peace initiative.

Khaldi was highly appreciative of China's diplomatic involvement in the Middle East peace process.

The internal violence in the Gaza Strip, in which dozens of children and other civilians have been killed, has been the bloodiest since Hamas used its Gaza power base to win a parliamentary election early last year.

Late yesterday, fighting began to spread to the West Bank with Fatah gunmen retaliating against Hamas when they shot and wounded a Hamas man near Ramallah, and seizing Hamas gunmen in the towns of Jenin and Nablus, where they also stormed a Hamas office and hurled its computers out of the window.

The European Union's foreign policy chief said on Wednesday that the EU would consider participation in an international force.

At the United Nations, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also raised the possibility of "an international presence" during a lunch with UN Security Council members.

Agencies - China Daily

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