At least 29 killed as hamas tightens grip on gaza strip
The United States said Thursday that it would consider an international peacekeeping for the Gaza Strip - just moments after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas dissolved the Cabinet and declared a state of emergency across the Palestinian Territories. The sacking of the government came after Hamas fighters captured one of Gaza's last bastions of Fatah loyalists on a day that left at least 29 people dead. Hamas said it "executed" a top Fatah "collaborator" and issued a hit list of other key supporters of Abbas amid unconfirmed reports of prisoners being shot.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told a news briefing the Bush administration would consider an international peacekeeping force for Gaza advanced by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon but believes that finding effective troops would be difficult.
He said US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice telephoned Abbas on Thursday and underlined US support for Palestinian "moderates" committed to a negotiated peace with Israel, a spokesman said.
He also said Washington appealed to "moderate" Arab states to support Abbas.
Rice spoke to Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Abou al-Gheit on Wednesday and the US ambassador to Jordan also talked to Jordanian officials, McCormack told reporters.
In the West Bank, Abbas signed decrees "sacking [Prime Minister] Ismail Haniyya and his government, and declaring a state of emergency," said Abbas' media adviser Nabil Amr.
A second Abbas aide said that under a third decree the president will form an emergency government to replace the unity government his Fatah movement formed with Haniyya's Hamas in March.
Abbas aide Tayyeb Abdel-Rahim also told reporters that the president is also considering early elections at some stage.
Abbas considers the Hamas fighters who have seized control of most of the Fatah-allied security headquarters in Gaza to be an "outlaw militia," Abdel-Rahim said.
Earlier, green Hamas flags fluttered from the rooftop of the Fatah-allied Preventive Security Service (PSS) headquarters in Gaza City. At least 29 more people were killed in Gaza, hospital staff said, including 18 Fatah men found in the PSS headquarters. In all, at least 110 people have been killed in six days of fighting.
Hamas said it had swept up other Fatah strongholds across Gaza, including a security office in the southern town of Rafah on the Egyptian border.
Stripped to the waist, several Fatah members, their hands raised in surrender, were herded out of the PSS compound by their captors. Casualty figures are unclear, as was the fate of Fatah fighters seen led away, bare-chested, after surrendering.
A Fatah official in Gaza said he had seen eight colleagues gunned down, while he escaped death "by a miracle."
Hamas' armed wing issued a statement saying it had "executed" Samih al-Madhoun of Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a close ally of Abbas' top security aide, Mohammad Dahlan.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told a news briefing the Bush administration would consider an international peacekeeping force for Gaza advanced by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon but believes that finding effective troops would be difficult.
He said US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice telephoned Abbas on Thursday and underlined US support for Palestinian "moderates" committed to a negotiated peace with Israel, a spokesman said.
He also said Washington appealed to "moderate" Arab states to support Abbas.
Rice spoke to Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Abou al-Gheit on Wednesday and the US ambassador to Jordan also talked to Jordanian officials, McCormack told reporters.
In the West Bank, Abbas signed decrees "sacking [Prime Minister] Ismail Haniyya and his government, and declaring a state of emergency," said Abbas' media adviser Nabil Amr.
A second Abbas aide said that under a third decree the president will form an emergency government to replace the unity government his Fatah movement formed with Haniyya's Hamas in March.
Abbas aide Tayyeb Abdel-Rahim also told reporters that the president is also considering early elections at some stage.
Abbas considers the Hamas fighters who have seized control of most of the Fatah-allied security headquarters in Gaza to be an "outlaw militia," Abdel-Rahim said.
Earlier, green Hamas flags fluttered from the rooftop of the Fatah-allied Preventive Security Service (PSS) headquarters in Gaza City. At least 29 more people were killed in Gaza, hospital staff said, including 18 Fatah men found in the PSS headquarters. In all, at least 110 people have been killed in six days of fighting.
Hamas said it had swept up other Fatah strongholds across Gaza, including a security office in the southern town of Rafah on the Egyptian border.
Stripped to the waist, several Fatah members, their hands raised in surrender, were herded out of the PSS compound by their captors. Casualty figures are unclear, as was the fate of Fatah fighters seen led away, bare-chested, after surrendering.
A Fatah official in Gaza said he had seen eight colleagues gunned down, while he escaped death "by a miracle."
Hamas' armed wing issued a statement saying it had "executed" Samih al-Madhoun of Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a close ally of Abbas' top security aide, Mohammad Dahlan.
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