Gaza gunmen reject storing arms for vote: minister

Mon Jan 16, 12:08 PM ET

GAZA (Reuters) - Militants in Gaza have rejected a Palestinian Authority plan to put their weapons in storage during next week's parliamentary election as a way to reduce the risk of violence, the Interior Minister said on Monday.

Fears of chaos during the January 25 ballot are strong in the Gaza Strip, where lawlessness has grown since Israel's withdrawal last September intensified a power struggle among armed factions and security forces.

Palestinian Interior Minister Nasser Yousef said a proposal had been made for factions in Gaza to collect their own weapons just before the ballot and put them into a storage area to which they would have one key and the Palestinian Authority another.

"But they rejected the proposal," Yousef he told reporters.

Khader Habib, an Islamic Jihad leader, confirmed the proposal was rejected, but denied that the group's weapons contributed to Gaza's "chaos and anarchy" or threatened security during the elections.

Yousef said the Palestinian Authority had offered police protection to faction leaders in Gaza in the hope that they would leave their armed bodyguards at home on election day. But that too was rejected.

Habib said the armed factions "know better how to protect their leaders."

"Arms of resistance cannot and must not be collected or put away," he said.

In a warning to militants, Yousef said security forces had "clear instructions to confront any attempt to use arms during the election period."

He was speaking after talks with U.N. special envoy for the Middle East peace process, Alvaro de Soto.

Violence in the run-up to the election has come as an embarrassment to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Many armed protests and abductions have involved gunmen from his own ruling Fatah movement, some of whom want the poll delayed.

Fatah is widely expected to lose ground in the election to the Islamic militant group Hamas, which is riding a wave of popularity among Palestinians because of its corruption-free reputation and extensive charity network.

Yousef said that efforts to safeguard polling in the West Bank would be badly hampered by Israeli restrictions on Palestinian movement in the occupied territory.

"So far we have not reached any significant agreement with the Israelis over the movement by security forces to afford protection to the election process," he said.

In an interview with Reuters, de Soto urged Israel to loosen the restrictions, as well as increase freedom of movement for voters and election workers.

Israel's cabinet agreed on Sunday to allow Palestinians to vote in Arab East Jerusalem but said it would ban Hamas from listing candidates there.

"Ultimately in a democracy you cannot have both participation in elected office and participation in armed militia. They are simply incompatible," de Soto said.

But he said it was up to the Palestinians to decide who can participate in the election and to assess "what are the consequences for electing them."

The Palestinian Authority wants a state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip with East Jerusalem as its capital. Those territories were captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war. Hamas aims to destroy Israel completely.

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