Palestinian rift reopens as Abbas blames Hamas for bombings

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday accused his Islamist Hamas rivals of carrying out a series of bombings against officials loyal to him in Gaza last week, in a move sure to harm already floundering unity efforts.
 
A series of small explosions targeted the homes and vehicles of officials from Abbas's Fatah movement on Friday, causing minor damage but no injuries.
 
A bomb also demolished a stage erected to commemorate the 10th anniversary of former president and Fatah leader Yasser Arafat's death, leading to the event being cancelled.
 
"Who committed this crime? The leadership of the Hamas movement did, and it's responsible!" Abbas roared to applause at a Fatah rally for Arafat in Ramallah, his seat of government in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
 
Hamas and Fatah agreed in April to form a reconciliation government, an effort to overcome deep political rifts that date back to 2007, when Hamas seized power in Gaza after a weeks-long civil war with Fatah.
 
The parties agreed in September that Hamas would relinquish Gaza's land crossings with Israel to the unity government in order to facilitate the entry of reconstruction aid. A devastating 50-day war with Israel in July and August leveled whole neighborhoods and left thousands of Gazans homeless.
 
Amid mutual blame, no change of guard occurred and almost no building materials have entered the Strip.
 
"These actions delay rebuilding and delay the moving of 100,000 people back into their homes ... The one loser is the people - in the war, in the rebuilding and in everything - while you sit in your homes and your hideouts with no concern except to say 'we're staying put'," Abbas fumed, rhetorically addressing Hamas leaders.
 
Hamas denounced the remarks, which stopped short of calling for a formal break with the Gaza-based Islamists.
 
"Abbas's speech was aimed at causing tensions. It's a partisan and despicable speech that did not carry any good intentions, neither towards Hamas nor towards the people of Gaza," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said.

Also on Tuesday, Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian during clashes in the occupied West Bank, a day after Palestinian assailants fatally stabbed an Israeli soldier and a woman in attacks that raised fears of a new uprising.
 
Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said the violence was not organized and it was not clear if it would lead to an Intifada, like the last Palestinian revolt that began more than a decade ago and died down in 2005.
 
The military said soldiers killed a 21-year-old Palestinian man at a refugee camp after coming under attack by a crowd hurling petrol bombs and stones. Residents said he was on his roof, away from the clashes when he was shot.
 
Confrontations also erupted in at least two other West Bank areas, where the army said soldiers shot and wounded two Palestinians.
 
The violence has raised Israeli concern that a new uprising was brewing, and Israel's security cabinet convened to assess the situation.
 
"We're not seeing masses pouring into the street. We're seeing, in certain places, young people using grassroots terrorism and lone attackers," Yaalon told reporters. "What do we call it? Let's wait and see how it develops. It's clear there is an escalation."
 
With the rise in violence, Israelis wondered if they would again have to worry about security in their daily lives.
 
"This is the same soundtrack we all remember from the days of the Intifada: you haven't had time to come to terms with the morning's terror attack and you're already wallowing in the next one," military affairs analyst Alex Fishman wrote in the Yedioth Ahronot daily.
 
The last Palestinian uprising brought a surge in suicide bombings in Israel and crushing military operations in Palestinian cities.
 
The new bloodshed has been fueled by tension over Israeli-controlled access to Jerusalem's holiest site, revered by Muslims as Noble Sanctuary, where al-Aqsa mosque stands, and by Jews as the mount where Biblical Temples once stood.
 
"We ask you (Israel) to keep settlers and extremists far away from al-Aqsa mosque and our holy places," Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Tuesday, following recent visits to the site by far-right legislators. "Keep them away from us and we'll stay away from them."
 
Similarly, a Palestinian was killed and several others were injured in an explosion apparently caused by a technical malfunction during a fuel transfer at an Israel-Gaza border crossing, Israeli and Palestinian officials said.

The blast occurred as a fuel tank was being filled at the Kerem Shalom crossing.

Israeli and Palestinian officials said they believed the explosion was accidental.

Last week, a Palestinian rammed his car into pedestrians in central Jerusalem, the second such incident at a light railway station in as many weeks.


LBCI/REUTERS