Palestinian interior minister, Hani Al-Qawasmi, resigned Monday from his post after a series of deadly infighting between the rival Hamas and Fatah parties in Gaza.
Palestinian interior minister, Hani Al-Qawasmi, resigned Monday from his post after a series of deadly infighting between the rival Hamas and Fatah parties in Gaza.
Al-Qawasmi’s resignation has been announced officially in a press conference Al-Qawasmi has held in front of his house in Gaza City.
The interior minister cited lack of cooperation by the rival parties with respect to the implementation of his security plan.
“I told the parties concerned; we are in a new stage, time is different, but they haven’t listened to my appeals for restraint, as if the Mecca deal did not mean end of all the previous mess”, aL-Qawasmi told reporters.
He added “ I told the president I can not continue in an empty post unless I am equipped with all required capabilities”.
Asked by IMEMC whether there has been lack of cooperation by the security bodies since his plan was first declared, the outgoing minister maintained “ actually we touched good intentions by all the security bodies, the problem does not lie in them”.
Minister aL-Qawasmi, an independent academic, has joined the coalition government after heated debates between Hamas and Fatah over the would-be interior minister. Fatah had insisted that the minister should be a strong person in order to enforce order.
The resignation, which was rejected last February by the Palestinian cabinet, came hours after the interior minister, announced commencement of his long-waited security plan, aimed at containing violence and internal unrest.
Over the past couple of days, 7 Palestinians have been killed and more than 30 others wounded after sporadic violence flared up between Hamas and Fatah, the parties in power, when a Fatah member was shot dead in northern Gaza.
Hamas and Fatah have traded accusations over the latest wave of killings, which is considered the deadliest since the two parties signed in Mecca early in February a power-sharing deal and vowed to put an end to their internecine fighting.
Commentators believe that the Mecca deal should be reactivated and consolidated in a way that make the rival parties committed to the agreement, given the fact that both Hamas and Fatah have now reached a point of no return.
Gaza internal unrest, involving factional infighting, family feuds and attacks on locals’ properties, has claimed the lives of about 400 residents over the past 14 months in the wake of a crippling international economic embargo on the Hamas-led government.
The Quartet committee for promoting peace in the Middle East (United Nations, United States, European Union, Russia) has been demanding the governing Islamist Hamas to recognize Israel renounce violence and accept past signed agreements before it wins international recognition.
