Last update - 00:00 18/09/2006
Palestinian PM bodyguards open fire outside parliament in Gaza
By Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz Correspondent
Bodyguards for Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh opened fire outside the Gaza City parliament building Monday, trying to clear the way for him through a group of protesters, police said.
The protesters were Palestinian Authority employees who demonstrated in demand of receiving their unpaid wages.
As Haniyeh, of the Islamic militant group Hamas, was approaching the building for a cabinet meeting, he was blocked by the protesters. His bodyguards then began firing shots in the air and beating the demonstrators.
A female Fatah parliamentarian was hurt in the melee and was taken to hospital. Haniyeh, who came to the parliament to give a speech, cancelled his address after Fatah legislators left parliament in protest over the violence.
'Al-Qaida in Palestine' says it killed PA officer
An organization calling itself "Al-Qaida in Palestine" took responsibility Monday for the murder of Jihad Tayeh, a brigadier general in the Palestinian General Intelligence Service in the Gaza Strip, and four of his bodyguards.
"This is only one of the actions we have planned to hunt the heretics," said the group in its declaration.
The 55-year-old Tayeh was murdered Friday in the Shati refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. He was the chief liaison officer between the Palestinian General Intelligence Service and foreign security organizations, and had ties to both Hamas and the Popular Resistance Committees.
Tayeh was recently named in the exposure of a Hamas intelligence cell operating in Jordan, accused of gathering intelligence on Jordanian political targets.
After Tayeh's murder, fighting broke out between members of Fatah and Hamas, with Fatah members accusing Hamas of being involved in Tayeh's murder.