Internal conflict is looming with disputes between Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas and the Hamas-led cabinet escalating.
The new Palestinian government headed by Hamas has plunged into
severe financial crisis and international isolation since it was
sworn in on March 29 following Hamas' surprising victory in the
Jan. 25 parliamentary elections.
Israel, considering Hamas a terrorist organization, stopped
monthly transfer of some US$50 million in custom duties and tax
payment collected on behalf of the Palestinian National Authority
(PNA) unless Hamas gave up its commitment to the destruction of
Israel.
The United States and the European Union piled additional
pressure on Hamas by cutting off direct aid to the PNA after Hamas
defied their demand to recognize Israel, renounce violence and
accept signed agreements with Israel.
Some Palestinian observers said that the cash-strapped Hamas
government began to blame Abbas and his former ruling Fatah
movement for the current plight, when it was unable to pay wages of
150,000 government employees.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri accused on Saturday some internal
elements of joining in "Israeli-American conspiracy" aimed at
crippling the Hamas-led government.
"The economic siege imposed on the Palestinians will collapse,"
he said, adding the government "would be able to overcome the
obstacles as the Palestinian people have the support of the Araband
Islamic world."
He warned that some internal parties are trying to create
further problems in the Palestinian territories, without naming the
parties.
Abu Zuhri's remarks came one day after Hamas politburo chief
Khaled Mashaal accused Abbas and his Fatah of corruption and
plotting to topple Hamas-led cabinet.
Mashaal made the accusation at a gathering in the Syrian capital
of Damascus to mark the second anniversary of the Israeli killing
of Hamas spiritual leader Ahmed Yassin.
Mashaal waged the verbal attacks soon after he learnt Abbas
annulled a decision by Hamas interior minister Said Siam to form a
special police force to restore law and order in the chaos-striken
Palestinian territories, which would recruit 4,000 militants from
different armed factions.
The latest tension followed Hamas irritation over Abbas's decree
sending his special security forces to take over control of Rafah
crossing on the borders between Gaza and Egypt earlier this
month.
Hassan Abu Shaweesh, a Palestinian political observer in Gaza,
said he feared that the war of words between Hamas and Fatah could
turn into physical.
"We strongly condemn Mashaal's offensive statement against Fatah
which has headed the Palestinian struggle for decades," AbuThaer,
the spokesman for al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed wing of Fatah,
told a news conference in Gaza.
"We call on the government and Prime Minister Ismail Haneya to
clarify in public if these statement represents the government
policy,"said Abu Thaer.
Meanwhile, Palestinian chief negotiator and senior Fatah
official Saeb Erekat told radio Voice of Palestine that Mashaal's
speech was "very dangerous", calling on Hamas to "retract it
immediately and shoulder its duties."
"I'm forced to counter these dangerous remarks which push our
people towards civil war," said Erekat.
Fatah supporters and militants took to the streets in the West
Bank and the Gaza Strip to protest against Mashaal's speech.
Observers said that the growing tension between Hamas and Abbas
would not ease as long as Hamas refused to abandon its hardline
position and seek a negotiated end to the Israeli occupation as
Abbas advocated.
(Xinhua News Agency April 24, 2006)
