Israel blocks Palestinian PM from returning to Gaza

GAZA, Dec 14: Israel blocked Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, a Hamas leader, from returning to Gaza today after a visit abroad, in an effort to prevent him bringing in money donated by Iran.

The Israeli move ratcheted up tensions further in the Gaza Strip, where security has declined sharply in recent days as a showdown between the governing Hamas group and the rival Fatah movement has boiled over into a series of killings.

Israeli security sources said Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz ordered the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza closed in order to stop Haniyeh returning to the coastal Palestinian territory after a two-week foreign tour to raise extra money.

''He is suspected of planning to bring in millions of dollars donated by Iran,'' one of the sources said.

Some 2,000 Hamas supporters, including gunmen firing in the air, stormed into the Rafah border terminal after Israel ordered it shut down, witnesses said.

There were no immediate reports of casualties and Haniyeh was believed to be in the nearby Egyptian town of El Arish.

''With our blood and souls we will redeem you, Haniyeh,'' the crowd chanted.

A spokeswoman for the European Border Assistance Mission, which monitors the crossing, confirmed that Haniyeh had been barred, saying it had been involved in the decision making.

''It is closed. The operation has stopped for a while until the situation with Haniyeh is clarified,'' she said.

Palestinian sources said negotiations were under way to allow Haniyeh in without the money.

Hundreds of Hamas supporters, waving green Hamas flags, had gathered on the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing to welcome Haniyeh on his return, and Hamas-loyal security forces also lined streets in Gaza City. Palestinian militants and Israel have been holding to a tentative ceasefire in the Gaza Strip since late November.

Mushir al-Masri, a senior Hamas legislator, said Israel's closure of Rafah ''could lead the region to an explosion and the Zionist enemy and its allies will bear the responsibility for the consequences''.

FUNDRAISING

Over the past two weeks, Haniyeh has toured the region, visting countries including Qatar, Iran and Sudan to raise money for his beleaguered government, which has largely been unable to function for the past year because of international sanctions.

Israel, the United States and the European Union regard Hamas, which is sworn to Israel's destruction, as a terrorist organisation and imposed sanctions after the Islamist group rejected their demands to recognise the Jewish state, renounce violence and accept existing interim peace accords.

Since those sanctions were imposed, Hamas officials have managed to bring about 80 million dollars in cash into Gaza via Rafah, according to European diplomats. Over the past two weeks, Haniyeh has received pledges of up to 350 million dollars.

Earlier in the day, officers from the General Intelligence unit, a force allied to President Mahmoud Abbas, arrested Hisham Mukhaimar, a member of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), following a gun battle at his home in Gaza City, witnesses said.

The PRC then kidnapped a security officer in retaliation.

A Palestinian security source said the Mukhaimar's arrest was linked to a probe into the killing on Monday of three young brothers whose father is an intelligence official loyal to Abbas.

Fatah has blamed Hamas for the deaths of the three boys, all aged under 10, who were shot as they were being dropped off at school by car. Hamas denies involvement.

Yesterday, in apparent retaliation for the boys' deaths, a Hamas judge who was also a member of the group's armed wing was shot dead in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis.

REUTERS