Palestinian Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyya, returned on Thursday to
Gaza after conducting the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia. He slammed
the recent violent internal clashes and said that the Palestinian
weapons should be directed against the occupation.
During his Saudi Arabia visit, Haniyya met with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.
Haniyya entered the Gaza Strip through the Rafah Border Crossing, the link between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, and headed to his house in Al Shaty’ refugee camp where he was welcomed by thousands of residents.
Haniyya expressed sadness over the casualties of the internal clashes between members of Fateh and Hamas movements, and said that the weapons should be directed against the occupation.
He called on all parties to stop the violence immediately.
“We have to stop this violence, the bloodshed must stop, let us solve our differences by negotiations”, Haniyya stated, “We as Palestinians still have a long and hard way to go before we achieve our liberation, we must unite and love each other”.
Commenting on efforts to resume the stalled peace process between Israel and the Palestinians, Haniyya said that he does not trust Israel and its Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
“He [Olmert] retracted from all understandings he reached with president Mahmoud Abbas”, Haniyya stated, “He did not release detainees, did not reduce checkpoints or reduce the suffering of our people”.
Also, Haniyya said that a slight progress had been reached regarding prisoner swap deal talks and said that he hopes that this issue will end by achieving freedom to the Palestinian detainees.
Haniyya also said that Israel always refused to talk about a prisoner swap deal, but now it is agreeing to the principle, and that Israel is now agreeing to talk about names and numbers of detainees provided by Palestinian factions.
Six Palestinians were killed and several others ere injured on Thursday during internal clashes between Fateh and Hamas fighters and members in the Gaza Strip.
