Reuters
Gunmen Seize Gaza Governor's Office in Protest
Date: Sun, Sep 05, 2004
By Nidal al-Mughrabi
GAZA (Reuters) - Masked gunmen briefly seized the Palestinian governor's office in a southern Gaza Strip (news - web sites) town on Sunday, demanding compensation for Israeli raids in a protest that added to signs of growing lawlessness.
The territory has been gripped by unprecedented turmoil amid demands for Palestinian President Yasser Arafat (news - web sites) to enact anti-corruption reforms and a tussle for control ahead of the Israeli plan to quit the occupied Gaza Strip by late next year.
Gunmen took over the governor's office in Khan Younis early on Sunday to demand compensation from Arafat's Palestinian Authority (news - web sites) for destruction caused by Israeli raids after a Palestinian suicide bombing that killed 16 Israelis.
In the West Bank, Israel started work on a new section of its controversial barrier near Hebron, the home city of the bombers who blew themselves up aboard buses last week.
The Gaza gunmen said they did not belong to any of the militant groups waging a four-year-old uprising against Israel, but came from a neighborhood where Israeli troops dynamited two apartment blocks after the bombing.
"We need homes for the homeless," Abu Mujahed, a spokesman for the gunmen, told Reuters, adding that 160 families had been uprooted by the latest Israeli demolition and previous raids.
"We are asking President Arafat to stand beside our fair demands," he said, adding that talks had begun with local officials to try to end the standoff.
Unrest which began in Gaza late in July and has touched the West Bank has posed the biggest internal challenge to Arafat's leadership since he returned from exile a decade ago as Palestinians gained a measure of self-rule.
Violence has also increased between Palestinian militants and the Israeli army -- both determined to claim victory in Gaza in the event of the withdrawal of troops and settlers planned by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites).
In the West Bank, Israel began work to expand its controversial barrier along the southern edge of the occupied territory. Bulldozers flattened land at the village of Sikka outside the city of Hebron.
Israel denied any link between Sunday's work and the bombing, but officials have said that Tuesday's attacks might have been prevented if a barrier had been built there.
Palestinians view the barrier, a network of razor-tipped fences and concrete walls, as the Israeli seizure of land they want to build a viable state as promised by a U.S.-backed peace plan.
Israel says completed sections of the barrier have already helped to foil dozens of suicide bombings.
SOURCE
FAIR USE NOTICE
This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.