Fatah storms Hamas-controlled buildings

Hundreds of Fatah gunmen on Saturday stormed Hamas-controlled institutions in the
West Bank, including parliament and government ministries, and told staffers that those with ties to Hamas will not be allowed to return.

Meanwhile, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met with a senior U.S. diplomat, his office said. The meeting between Abbas and the U.S. consul-general in Jerusalem, Jacob Walles, took place at Abbas` headquarters in Ramallah, hours before Abbas was expected to swear in an emergency government.

At the parliament, the Fatah supporters chanted, "Hamas Out," climbed on the roof of the building and fired in the air. They planted Fatah and Palestinian flags on the building, and also tried to seize the deputy speaker but were stopped by employees.

Many government employees tied to Hamas had not showed up for work on Saturday, the start of the work week in the West Bank, after Hamas took control of Gaza in a military campaign. Apparently, the staffers feared reprisals.

A member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs` Brigades, a violent offshoot of Fatah, said his group planned to take control of all Hamas institutions, in response to Hamas` takeover of Gaza.

At the parliament building, Fatah gunmen entered the office of Deputy Speaker Hassan Kreisheh and tried to grab him, but Fatah employees stopped them. Other Fatah activists took over the Education Ministry and the prime minister`s office.

In the West Bank city of Nablus, Fatah gunmen took over the Hamas-controlled city council and planted the Fatah flag on the top of the building. Fatah supporters also kidnapped seven Hamas supporters, and deposed a senior member of the Religious Affairs Ministry.

Also Saturday, a crowd looted the home of late Palestinian leader
Yasser Arafat, destroying one of the strongest symbols of the Fatah movement in the
Gaza Strip, witnesses and Fatah officials said.

Fatah officials said the crowd took furniture, wall tiles and Arafat`s personal belongings.

The villa had been empty since Arafat left for the West Bank in 2001 shortly after the outbreak of the second Palestinian uprising.
Israel confined Arafat to the West Bank until permitting him to fly to France for medical care in late 2004. He died in France several weeks later.

Arafat, Fatah`s founder, led the Palestinians for four decades before his death.

sections: Accidents