Last update - 00:00 07/05/2007
Ban: Internal Palestinian clashes harming UN efforts in Gaza Strip
By News Agencies
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon Monday urged the Palestinian Authority to stop intra-Palestinian fighting, saying it harms United Nations work in the Gaza Strip.
Ban called on PA's national unity government "to exercise its responsibility to ensure law and order, including the protection of humanitarian organizations that deliver vital services to the people of Gaza."
Intra-Palestinian clashes broke out on Sunday at a school in Gaza's Rafah town run by the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which cares for Palestinian refugees in the Middle East, killing one person and injuring eight others, including two children.
The UN reported last month that at least as many Palestinians are killed as the result of fighting among Palestinian factions than as the result of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Palestinian security inspected the headquarters of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Gaza City and workers reinforced the compound's main gate with metal sheets Monday, a day after Muslim extremists attacked a UN-run elementary school in Gaza.
Witnesses said gunmen kidnapped one of the members of the group that attacked the school late Monday. Security officials had no comment.
At the time of the attack, the school in the southern Gaza refugee camp of Rafah had hosted a sports festival. The incident began with a protest by Muslim extremists who said the festival was un-Islamic.
Some of the protesters tried to enter the school, one hurled a bomb and a gunfight ensued. The bodyguard of a local Fatah politician was killed and seven people wounded in the attack.
The top UN official in Gaza, John Ging, was in the school at the time but was not harmed.
The shooting came after a failed assassination of Ging in March, when gunmen opened fire on his convoy. Later, armed men also commandeered to UN cars at gunpoint.
Since the attack on Ging, UNRWA, which aids Palestinian refugees, has stepped up security measures. On Monday, Palestinian security inspected the walled UNRWA compound, and workmen reinforced the main gate with metal sheets.