GAZA: Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh visited the family of his bodyguard killed during a gunfight at the Rafah border corssing

Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh on Monday (December 18) visited the family of his bodyguard killed during a gunfight on Thursday (December 14) at the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza. Haniyeh's bodyguard was killed and his adviser wounded during clashes between Hamas and Fatah that broke out around the Rafah border crossing as Haniyeh was passing into Gaza. Hundreds of Hamas supporters stormed the border terminal prior to Haniyeh's crossing, after European observers stationed there left their posts and the crossing shut. Hours later, Haniyeh was eventually allowed to cross into Gaza, without the estimated 35 million U.S. dollars in cash he'd collected during a visit to a number of regional Muslim states. That gunfight sparked more violence the next day, which escalated further on Saturday (December 16) after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called for early elections, a move intended to break political deadlock with the Hamas Islamists and get Western sanctions on their government lifted. On Monday Abbas said he would press on with early elections even as a truce between his security forces and the Hamas government brokered late on Sunday night threatened to unravel in the Gaza Strip. Speaking from the home of his dead bodyguard Haniyeh said "we refuse the call for early legislative elections. This is an unconstitutional call, and this creates a strategic regression to our political balance and will take the Palestinian arena 10 years backward. The Palestinian people have made their choice at the ballot boxes and determined their choice, and the Palestinian Legislative Council should continue it's term for it's entire 4 entire years." Interior Ministry police briefly exchanged fire with Abbas's presidential guard near the Foreign Ministry. Tension also rose in northern Gaza after Hamas gunmen seized a member of Abbas's Fatah faction, a Fatah source said. That prompted Fatah to seize a Hamas member, sparking gunbattles. British Prime Minister Tony Blair, speaking after meeting Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah, said the international community should try to put together in the coming weeks a package of assistance to help the moderate leader. A truce deal was struck late on Sunday but already looks like it could collapse. Abbas insisted his Fatah movement was still open to the formation of a unity government of technocrats, saying in prepared remarks that this was the best way forward. The West has sought to bolster Abbas, who favours a two-state solution to end conflict with Israel.

ITN Source | December 19, 2006

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