Last update - 00:00 26/06/2007
Sderot building damaged as two Qassams strike western Negev
By Mijal Greenberg, Haaretz Correspondent
Two Qassam rockets were fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip on Tuesday morning.
One rocket hit a building in Sderot, causing extensive damage to the structure, which belongs to a local yeshiva. A second rocket fell in an open area near Sderot causing no damage.
Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin told the cabinet Sunday that Hamas is planning to carry out suicide bombings in order to undermine the efforts by Israel and the West to bolster Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.
Diskin also warned that the impression that Fatah is powerful in the West Bank is only an illusion.
Meanwhile, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, formerly the prime minister in the PA's unity government, Sunday called on Fatah and Hamas to resume their partnership in a shared government to extricate the Palestinians from the current crisis.
Haniyeh called for resumption of the dialogue between the two sides and asked that persons in elected offices - in the parliament, the cabinet and the presidency - be respected by all Palestinians.
The senior Hamas figure also demanded the establishment of new security organizations for the PA, which would be more professional and balanced.
In a speech before Fatah parliamentarians and other Palestinian leaders in the Gaza Strip, Haniyeh charged that certain factions in Fatah worked to undermine his government following the Hamas election victory in early 2006. He asserted that he had warned Abbas that commanders in the various security organizations affiliated with Fatah had created a "special force" in the National Security organization, whose purpose was to confront Hamas.
"What happened in Gaza is the result of pressure that had been directed against it [Hamas] for a year and a half," Haniyeh claimed.
Arab leaders warned
The Hamas leader also warned leaders of Arab states not to side with Israel during today's summit at Sharm el-Sheikh, since neither Israel nor the U.S. have given a thing to the Arab nation.
Meanwhile, the head of the Palestinian intelligence service, Tawfiq Tirawi, accused Hamas yesterday of planning to assassinate Abbas by planting a bomb along the road he traveled on in the Gaza Strip, so as to take over the presidency.
Speaking before the cabinet Sunday, Diskin warned that Hamas is planning to resume suicide bombings in order to prevent any support from reaching Abbas and Fatah. The Shin Bet head also warned that Fatah is a divided organization, and without a strong party it will be impossible for Abbas' forces to prevent terrorism in the West Bank.
Military Intelligence chief Major General Amos Yadlin told the cabinet Sunday that during its takeover of the Gaza Strip, Hamas took control of Fatah arsenals and arms stockpiles there.
He also pointed out to the recent arrests of Hamas members by Fatah in the West Bank and described them as "not serious."
The two security chiefs were in agreement regarding the absence at present of a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, and insisted that the regular transfer of various goods and services must be allowed to continue, bolstering the cabinet's decision to allow uninterrupted supplies of electricity, water, food and medicine, in spite of the boycott on Hamas.