Bank accounts of Hamas force frozen in Gaza

GAZA, Aug 13 (Reuters) - A Palestinian bank has frozen the accounts of members of a Hamas security force after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's government accidentally paid some of their salaries, officials said today.

The payments were made a week ago into the accounts of some members of the Islamist group's Executive Force, which helped seize control of the Gaza Strip in June from forces loyal to Abbas's secular Fatah faction.

The Palestine Islamic Bank froze accounts in the Gaza Strip of about 3,400 Executive Force members at the request of the Palestine Monetary Authority, which functions as a central bank, a senior Palestinian bank official said.

A spokesman for the Hamas-controlled Interior Ministry in Gaza, Ehab al-Ghsain, confirmed that all accounts belonging to the Executive Force at the Palestine Islamic Bank had been frozen.

Ghsain called the action illegal and said ''legal procedures could be taken against the bank in the coming hours.'' The Executive Force summoned the local director of the bank for questioning about the decision.

Abbas responded to the Hamas takeover of Gaza by appointing an emergency government in the West Bank headed by Western-backed economist Salam Fayyad, who serves as prime minister, finance minister and foreign minister.

After the payments to the Executive Force were discovered last week, Fayyad's Finance Ministry ordered the payouts to be reversed, but hundreds of fighters had already managed to withdraw funds.

Officials said the deposits were part of a general disbursement to civil servants meant to cover July salaries as well as 30 per cent of the wages that went unpaid after Hamas was voted into power last year, prompting a Western aid embargo.

Fayyad resumed paying wages last month but excluded Hamas appointees.

Reuters PD RN210313-07