Hamas wants parliament to block Abbas referendum

The referendum debate is taking place amid escalating violence between Israel and Hamas, complicating Abbas’ efforts.

At the parliament session today, Hamas politicians challenged the legality of Abbas’ decree on Saturday announcing the July 26 referendum, though it was unclear they could muster the necessary two-thirds majority to shoot it down.

Abbas, of the rival Fatah party, is pushing ahead with the referendum because he hopes that accepting a two-state solution would help the Palestinians to end crushing international economic sanctions against the Hamas government. He also thinks it would promote Palestinian statehood and diminish fighting between Hamas and Fatah that has killed 17 Palestinians over the past month.

Abbas announced the vote despite an explosion on a Gaza beach on Friday that killed eight civilians and inflamed passions against Israel. Palestinian said the deaths were caused by an Israeli artillery shell, but Israel has suggested its army may not be responsible and is conducting an investigation.

Abbas’ referendum plans suffered a further setback yesterday when a Hamas prisoner who co-authored the proposal withdrew his support for the document.

Abdel Khaleq Natche accused Abbas of exploiting the document for political gain. He and other Palestinian prisoners held by Israel enjoy great clout in Palestinian society.

Before the beach attack, opinion polls had shown widespread public support for the referendum. There have been no surveys since.

The stormy legislative session on the referendum Monday began with several hundred government employees demonstrating to demand salaries that have been withheld for more than three months because of the Western aid cut-off.

“We want milk, we want food,” protesters shouted. Dozens of angry demonstrators banged on the chamber’s door after the session began.

Fatah legislator Saeb Erekat urged lawmakers to “rally around efforts to unite the people, not divide them”.

Israel-Palestinian violence has shot up since the beach explosion and the killing by Israel a day earlier of a senior Palestinian militant, with Hamas officially calling off a 16-month truce.

In the 24 hours that ended at noon today, militants launched 39 rockets at southern Israel, causing no damage or injuries, the Israeli military said.

Military officials said Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz postponed a large-scale air offensive against Gaza militants for a day or two to give the Palestinians more time to stop rocket attacks from the coastal territory.

Israel suspended its artillery fire against rocket-launching operations until it winds up its investigation of the killings on the Gaza beach.

Although the Palestinians rockets are inaccurate and often don’t cause casualties, they have badly disrupted the lives of residents of Israeli towns near the Gaza.

The sharp spike in rocket attacks have led to renewed Israeli threats to assassinate Hamas leaders.

Tzahi Hanegbi, chairman of the Israeli parliament’s Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee, said Monday that Palestinian prime minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas could become a target if he were to begin directing attacks.

Israel killed Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, and his successor, Abdel Aziz Rantisi, in missile strikes in 2004, and the same fate could befall Haniyeh, Hanegbi warned.

“Rantisi and Yassin are waiting for you Haniyeh if you take the same position of killing Jews and of striking indiscriminately with suicide attacks that will try once again to freeze Israeli society,” he said.

Peretz also suggested that Haniyeh could be a target, saying that no one involved in attacks against Israel would be immune from retaliatory strikes.

Haniyeh shrugged off the threats.

“Such statements are not new to us,” he said. “They reflect the hostile attitude of some Israeli leaders.”

Hamas suicide bombers killed more than 250 Israelis in four-and-a-half years of violence that preceded the cease-fire.

The end of the truce has raised concerns that Hamas could resume the suicide attacks, but with Hamas now the governing power, it might pressure its military wing to avoid deadly confrontation with Israel, for fear that would deepen its international isolation.