Palestinian PM resigns, Israel wounds Hamas founder

7.00am

RAMALLAH, West Bank - Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas submitted his resignation today in a power struggle with Yasser Arafat, dealing a possibly fatal setback for a US-backed plan for peace with Israel.


Underscoring peacemakers' plight, Israeli forces fired a missile into a house in Gaza City in an apparent bid to kill the spiritual leader of the biggest Palestinian militant movement Hamas, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, who was slightly wounded.


It was not known whether Abbas's resignation would be accepted by Arafat, who is wary of being blamed for a collapse of peacemaking and of Israeli threats to expel him.


But aides said Abbas was bitter over his inability to carry out reform and peace steps and was determined not to return.


Senior officials said Abbas's cabinet would continue in a caretaker capacity for the time being. Leaders of Arafat's mainstream Fatah movement would meet on Sunday to discuss possible successors to Abbas, they added.


Abbas's departure could ruin the US-devised "road map" plan for peace envisaging a Palestinian state co-existing alongside Israel, and accelerate a slide back into violence.


Palestinian militants scrapped a cease-fire two weeks ago and Israel stepped up a campaign to assassinate their leaders.


Hamas members said the wheelchair-bound Yassin, co-founder of the Islamic faction, received hospital treatment after being slightly wounded in the hand and shoulder. Palestinian medics said 14 other people were wounded.


Hamas, 12 of whose members have been killed in Israeli missile strikes since a suicide bombing killed 22 Israelis in Israel on August 19, threatened to kill Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. "We warn Sharon that his head is now wanted by our troops," militants told an angry crowd through loudspeakers.


The Israeli military said the air force blasted a building where Hamas leaders including Yassin had been meeting "to plan future terrorist attacks" on Israel and it vowed to continue waging "relentless war against Hamas."


Abbas's caretaker government condemned the attack on Yassin as "a grave escalation that wrecks all efforts exerted by the Palestinian leadership to reach calm, and renew a cease-fire."


Arafat had blocked Abbas's efforts to obtain security powers since appointing him under US pressure in April, but accepting the resignation could provoke Israel into trying to deport him.


Abbas told a closed session with parliamentarians that he had quit over the power struggle and "harsh and dangerous incitement" against him by militants, some loyal to Arafat.


He also cited what he called Israel's failure to carry out its obligations under the road map and a lack of US pressure on the Jewish state to honor it.


Arafat met lawmakers later, read out Abbas's resignation letter and said it was "unfortunate that Abbas has resorted to this action," but did not indicate whether he would approve it.


Some lawmakers interpreted Arafat's remarks as endorsing the resignation but senior aides insisted he had not decided.


Sharon's office served notice that Israel would not accept day-to-day control of the Palestinian Authority reverting to Arafat "or anyone doing his bidding."



Israel has sought to sideline Arafat, saying he has incited violence in the almost three-year-old uprising against Israeli occupation in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, a charge he denies.


Israel and the United States touted Abbas as the main hope for reforms and peace moves while trying to isolate Arafat.


But after its launch by President Bush at a June 4 peace summit, the "road map" quickly bogged down in disputes between the sides over who should take what step first.


Israel accused Abbas of doing nothing to dismantle militant groups sworn to destroying the Jewish state. It says the truce fell apart because of the Hamas suicide bombing on August 19.


Palestinians said Israel's continued offensives against militants sabotaged the truce and that blockades of West Bank cities denied Abbas the credibility he needed to swoop on what he has called "armed chaos" in Palestinian-administered areas.


Sharon's rightist coalition endorsed the peace plan only after US arm-twisting and remains opposed to ceding land occupied in a 1967 war and settled by around 230,000 Jews.


Abbas, 68, was appointed by Arafat under foreign pressure to democratize the Palestinian Authority. But Arafat, a 74-year-old ex-guerrilla chief and icon of Palestinian nationalism since the 1960s, has clung to his over-arching powers and popular appeal.

- REUTERS