Gaza border shots 'targeted PM'

BBC
Dec. 15, 2006

Hamas says the shooting on the convoy of the Palestinian prime minister at a Gaza border post was an assassination attempt by a rival faction.

Ismail Haniya's convoy came under fire when it was allowed to cross, after being held there for several hours.

A bodyguard was killed and Mr Haniya's son was shot in the face as the fire fight erupted at the Rafah checkpoint.

Border guards allied to President Abbas' Fatah faction, exchanged fire with Mr Haniya's security forces.

His convoy came under fire after the crossing was closed by Israel and angered Hamas militants, waiting to welcome him on the Gaza side, stormed the crossing point, overwhelming the border guards.

Chaotic scenes

The BBC's Alan Johnston in Gaza said that during chaotic scenes gunfire rattled around the entrance hall to the customs hall as Mr Haniya's bodyguards shielded him.

He said the incident, as the jeep Mr Haniya was travelling in manoeuvred to avoid the bullets, was captured on television cameras.

"The bodyguard to Ismail Haniya was killed during an assassination attempt," said Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum.

Mr Haniya had been prevented from crossing into Gaza and held at the border point for almost eight hours.

Israel closed its border saying that the tens of millions of dollars Mr Haniya was carrying as he returned from a foreign trip would fund "terrorist operations".

Mr Haniya crossed late on Thursday, following hours of intense negotiations, leaving the money on the Egyptian side with his aides.

Early elections?

Mr Haniya had been due to return to Gaza on Thursday after cutting short his first trip abroad as prime minister to deal with mounting tensions between his Hamas group and rivals Fatah.

Inter-faction tensions have increased since the killing of three sons of a pro-Fatah security chief on Monday.

President Mahmoud Abbas has spoken of the possibility of fresh elections.

Hamas would regard as tantamount to a coup, our correspondent says, an attempt to usurp the mandate that it won in elections just under a year ago.

Foreign donations

On Thursday Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz had ordered European Union monitors to close the Rafah crossing point.

Israel had said Mr Haniya would only be allowed to cross into Gaza if he left the money - reported to total more than $30m (Ł15.3m) - on the Egyptian side.

Israel says that money, in particular from Iran, goes directly to the funding of "terrorist operations" against Israel.

Mr Haniya's Hamas government has been hit by a Western-led boycott of its government and officials have had to carry in millions in cash.

Israel, the US and the EU all regard Hamas as being a terrorist organisation.

There are reports that the money has been deposited in an Arab League bank account in Egypt, our correspondent says.