Palestinian police clashed in Gaza Strip with 300 supporters of Hamas who stoned a police station in a rally demanding the execution of an alleged collaborator. Hospital officials in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip said some 20 people, including police officers were injured.
Medics said the wounds included gunshot and shrapnel injuries and abrasions from stoning. At least one policeman was hurt by a crude explosive device and a demonstrator arrested for firing on the police.
Police opened fire in the air as Hamas supporters and residents of Rafah pelted the police station with stones and even a home-made hand grenade on Wednesday. The demonstrators were calling for the authorities to condemn to death a man accused by Hamas of collaborating in the killing by Israeli forces of six people, including two Hamas officials, two weeks ago in a helicopter raid in southern Gaza.
The man had reportedly been kidnapped last week by Hamas, who announced he would be executed. But members of Fatah negotiated his surrender Tuesday to the Palestinian Authority for trial, Palestinian officials said, according to AFP.
The crowd who massed outside Rafah police station Wednesday included relatives of those killed in the Israeli attack, who wanted to ensure the alleged collaborator was executed.
Earlier on Wednesday, thousands rallied in support of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in Gaza City in one of the biggest demonstrations by his Fatah movement in months. Armed Fatah activists fired in the air, and one said: "Our rifles will protect our right of free choice, and not Bush's dictations. Our choice is Arafat."
Meanwhile, the Israeli security cabinet decided on Wednesday to end daylight curfews gradually in seven Palestinian cities reoccupied by the Israeli army.
"We will lift the curfew during the day so that normal life can be gradually restored," Raanan Gissin, a Sharon adviser, told Reuters. It would be left to Israeli commanders to determine when the security situation permitted an easing of restrictions, he said.
"We can't punish an entire people," Israel's dovish foreign minister, Shimon Peres, was quoted by a political source as telling the cabinet in making his case for an easing of restrictions.
Within this framework, the Israeli ministers decided to permit five thousand Palestinian workers to be employed in Israel, according to The Jerusalem Post.
In a related development, Egyptian President’s Advisor Osama Al-Baz and Egyptian Security General Omar Suliman will not be making their planned trip to Israel and the Palestinian territories, according to press reports. Their trip, intended to open talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, has been delayed by the Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
