Palestinian interior minister resigns

Interior minister Hani al-Qawasmeh resigned from the Palestinian unity government yesterday amid the deadliest factional fighting in two months in a major blow to the fledgling administration.

A ceasefire announced late Sunday in a bid to stem the violence failed to take hold.

Two activists of president Mahmud Abbas's secular Fatah faction were killed in clashes with gunmen of prime minister Ismail Haniya's Islamist Hamas movement just hours after it was supposed to come into effect.

Qawasmeh, an independent whose appointment was the subject of marathon talks between the two coalition partners, charged he had not been granted adequate authority and accused the government of not taking security seriously.

"I resigned from my position because I am not willing to be a purely decorative interior minister without authority," he told a news conference.

He submitted his resignation late Sunday and prime minister Ismail Haniya accepted on Monday, but Qawasmeh denied that his decision was directly related to the faction fighting that killed six people in the Gaza Strip in 24 hours.

"I reached the conclusion the whole (security) situation is not being dealt with seriously... The combined force that has been agreed are opposing forces that are fighting as we speak," he said.

The Palestinian government took office on March 17 following a landmark power-sharing deal between Fatah and Hamas, and was created precisely to end similar infighting that killed 100 Palestinians in the two preceding months.

Haniya issued an appeal for calm yesterday and urged Palestinians to protect the power-sharing agreement reached in Saudi Arabia and stand by the unity administration as their best hope.