Assassination of Fatah security chief foiled

Palestinian security today foiled an attempt to kill a top commander loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas with a roadside bomb, officials said, further raising tensions between Abbas’ Fatah movement and the Hamas-led government.

Abbas said he would start a Fatah-Hamas dialogue on Thursday to defuse the crisis. “Civil war is forbidden,” he said.

The discovery of the 154lbs bomb came a day after Abbas’ intelligence chief was seriously wounded in an explosion. Fatah officials said there is a ”clear conspiracy” against their leaders, though they stopped short of openly accusing Hamas of involvement.

Tensions have been rising since Hamas defeated the long-ruling Fatah in legislative elections early this year. The sides have been locked in a power struggle focused in large part on control of security forces.

Gaza security chief Rashid Abu Shbak, a central figure in the power struggle, was the target of today's attempted bombing, security officials said.

Security personnel found the explosives along a route used by Shbak’s motorcade. The road is inspected each morning before Shbak heads to work. The explosives were removed and destroyed in a controlled explosion.

After the bomb was discovered, hundreds of Fatah activists took to the streets, expressing support for the movement’s security forces and volunteering their services. Later in the day, the Fatah-dominated Preventive Security agency stepped up patrols in the streets of Gaza and restricted access to their headquarters.

Abbas tried to calm the tensions, saying the sides could not allow the situation to deteriorate into a full-fledged civil war.

“Civil war is the red line that nobody dares cross, no matter which side they are on … Civil war is forbidden,” Abbas said on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in the Egyptian Red Sea resort Sharm el-Sheik, where he met with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.

Abbas wants Israel to conduct peace talks through him, bypassing Hamas, but Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert played down that possibility in an interview with CNN.

“Abbas doesn’t have even the power to take charge of his own government,” said Olmert, who is on his way to Washington for talks. “So how can he represent that government in the most crucial, complex and sensitive negotiations, about which there are so many divisions within the Palestinian community?”

Abbas, a political moderate, was elected in separate presidential elections last year and wields significant authority, including formal control over some of the security forces.

In April, Abbas angered Hamas by placing Abu Shbak in charge of three security agencies that report to the Hamas-controlled Interior Ministry. Hamas responded by announcing formation of its own security force.

The 3,000-member Hamas militia was deployed for the first time last week, despite orders from Abbas not to form the unit.

Fatah officials have hinted that they believe Hamas was behind Saturday’s attack and today’s attempted bombing, but have stopped short of openly accusing Hamas of involvement.

“There is a clear conspiracy aimed to target Fatah leaders and the security chief in the Gaza Strip with suspicious objects. What happened today near Abu Shbak’s house and yesterday with the intelligence services is proof of this,” said Fatah spokesman Tawfiq Abu Khoussa.

The Abbas-Livni meeting was the highest level Israeli-Palestinian contact since Hamas election victory. Israel has cut all ties with the Hamas-led government, calling it an enemy entity, and slapped economic sanctions on the Palestinian Authority.

The sanctions, coupled with a halt in financial aid from the US and Europe, have left the Hamas government broke and unable to pay the salaries of 165,000 employees for the past two months.

The budget crisis has increased economic hardship in the already poverty-stricken Paestinian population.

Israel’s Cabinet today approved the release of $11m (€8.6m) in withheld Palestinian money to buy medical supplies for the Palestinians.

Olmert said the aid would be given directly to Palestinian hospitals to ensure the money doesn’t reach the hands of militants. Since Hamas took office, Israel has frozen monthly transfers of $55m (€43m) in taxes it collects for the Palestinians.

Also today, Israel’s Defence Ministry approved the expansion of the municipal boundaries of four Jewish settlements, a practice the US has opposed in the past.

Olmert has said he will draw Israel’s borders, unilaterally if necessary, by 2010, dismantling many West Bank settlements and incorporating the largest settlement blocs into Israel. Three of the settlements slated for expansion lie within areas Olmert hopes to annex to Israel.

According to the US-backed road map peace plan, Israel had agreed not to expand existing settlements or build new ones.