Palestinian interior minister calls it quits

The Palestinian interior minister quit in frustration Monday over a surge in factional violence in the Gaza Strip that has cast the future of the Palestinian power-sharing government into doubt.

After less than two months on the job, Hani Kawasmeh said he was stepping down because neither side of the factional divide, Fatah or Hamas, would give him the power necessary to integrate competing security agencies into a unified force capable of reestablishing order in the increasingly lawless Gaza Strip.

The resignation of the relative independent dealt a blow to the Fatah-Hamas unity government that was formed in March after the two organizations agreed to a cease-fire brokered by Saudi Arabia. The departing minister’s angry accusations of a lack of support underscored how difficult it has been to get the rival groups to compromise on the central issue of who controls the more than 70,000 men under arms in the Palestinian territories.

The discord has had lethal consequences in Gaza, where six more people, at least one of them a civilian, were killed in factional clashes Monday and early today, bringing the death toll to 11 since violence erupted Sunday. Masked gunmen let loose fusillades of bullets in the streets, which were empty of residents, while other fighters choked off roads and surrounded buildings either to attack or protect.

After a three-hour emergency meeting Monday night, senior Fatah and Hamas officials declared their readiness to order their street commanders to pull back. Palestinian Cabinet spokesman Ghazi Hamad said the two warring factions also reaffirmed their pledge “to make this [unity] government stand.”

Gunfire died down in Gaza’s streets for a few hours, but two more people were killed in fighting overnight, hospital officials said today.

A truce cobbled together Sunday night by an Egyptian security delegation collapsed almost before it began.

The proximate cause of the latest round of bloodletting, the worst since establishment of the power-sharing government, was Fatah’s deployment Thursday of thousands of its security troops without agreement from Hamas.

The move punched a hole in Kawasmeh’s efforts to put together an integrated security plan for Gaza.

After submitting his resignation, Kawasmeh complained bitterly that his hands had been tied from the start of his tenure. Neither the secular Fatah, the party of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, nor the Islamic fundamentalist Hamas, which won elections last year, took him seriously, the outgoing minister said.

“From the beginning, I faced obstacles that robbed the ministry of its powers and made my position empty, without authority,” Kawasmeh told reporters at a news conference. “I told all the concerned parties ... that I had to have full authority to be able to carry out my duties.”

A career civil servant, Kawasmeh had little experience in law enforcement and wielded little influence in the government. He was picked as a compromise candidate for the interior minister’s job after months of bickering between Hamas and Fatah over the politically sensitive post.

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, of Hamas, will now take on the interior portfolio until a new minister is named.

Hamad said Haniyeh had personally called Hamas commanders to ask them to withdraw their forces, put down their guns and release captives taken in kidnappings.

henry.chu@latimes.com

Special correspondent Abu Alouf reported from Gaza City and Times staff writer Chu from Jerusalem.