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Israel 'will not intervene'
15/06/2007 10:50 - (SA)
Gaza City - Calm appeared to be returning to Gaza on Friday morning after five days of brutal fighting between rival Palestinian forces.
Traffic was back on the streets and few armed men were visible, in contrast to the running battles of the past few days.
In the latest wave of bloodletting in the crowded and chaotic territory, Hamas gunmen defeated their rivals from Fatah with surprising swiftness, seizing their security installations and marching once-feared Fatah fighters down the street shirtless and with hands raised.
The Palestinian territories have essentially been split into two parts. Gaza is now under the control of Hamas, an Islamist movement with close ties to Syria and Iran. The West Bank, home to most of the Palestinian population, is dominated by the more moderate Fatah, which has ties to Israel and the West.
Safe in his office in the West Bank town of Ramallah, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah declared a state of emergency on Thursday, firing the Hamas-led government and its prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh.
But whatever power Abbas once wielded in Gaza disappeared with the collapse of his forces there. Haniyeh brushed off Abbas's decision, calling it "hasty" and refusing to leave office. The situation was "not suitable for unilateral decisions", Haniyeh said.
An Israeli Cabinet minister said however that despite calls from the right for Israel to reoccupy the Gaza Strip, which it quit in 2005, Israel would not move in to confront Hamas, which is sworn to destroy it.
"There is no intention to re-enter that swamp, Gaza, in this situation. At this point, Israel has no reason to intervene," minister Meir Sheetrit told Israel Radio.
- AP
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