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GAZA - Israel blocked Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh from carrying US$35million into Gaza today, allowing the Hamas leader to return from fund-raising in Muslim countries only after he left the money behind.
At least 20 people were wounded in clashes that erupted at the Rafah border crossing between gunmen from Hamas and the rival Fatah faction of moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas during the hours-long standoff, hospital officials said.
A Palestinian official said one of Haniyeh's bodyguards was killed when the prime minister's convoy came under fire as he left Rafah. Another bodyguard, Haniyeh's son and a political adviser were wounded, the official said, holding members of Abbas's presidential guard responsible.
Haniyeh sped from the scene in a pickup truck, with bodyguards surrounding him.
The test of wills on the Egyptian border racheted up tension in the Gaza Strip, where a political showdown between Hamas and Fatah has boiled over in recent days into a series of killings.
Palestinian officials and Western diplomats said Haniyeh had planned to enter the impoverished Gaza Strip from Egypt with $35 million of cash in suitcases.
In the past two weeks, he visited countries including Iran, Qatar and Sudan to raise money for his government, which has struggled to function because of Western sanctions imposed after Hamas, an Islamist group dedicated to Israel's destruction, won election in January.
But Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz ordered the closure of the Rafah crossing and European monitors stationed at the terminal left the area. An Israeli security source said it was the money, not Haniyeh, that Israel wanted to keep out of Gaza.
Raged
Nearly seven hours later and as Hamas-Fatah clashes raged on, Haniyeh crossed into the terminal, severely damaged during the fighting.
Hamas sources said the money stayed in Egypt with two officials who would sort out what to do with it.
"The visit achieved a breakthrough in the unjust siege imposed on our Palestinian people and therefore the occupation (Israel) made some delays and disruptions during our return," Haniyeh, looking grim and tired, said at his Gaza home.
"Some brothers of my delegation stayed behind and they will follow up this issue with the Egyptian side," he told reporters.
Israel, the United States and the European Union regard Hamas as a terrorist organisation and cut off direct aid to the Palestinian government after Hamas rejected their demands that it recognise the Jewish state, renounce violence and accept existing interim peace accords.
Since those edicts went into effect, Hamas officials have managed to bring about $80 million in cash into Gaza via Rafah, according to European diplomats. Over the past two weeks, Haniyeh has received pledges of up to $350 million.
Hamas says it uses financial support from sympathetic states to pay government salaries and maintain key public services. Israel says it believes the money goes to Hamas militants.
In Washington, US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Haniyeh's attempt to take the cash into Gaza "flies in the face of the will of the international community in terms of the rules that it has laid down".
Diplomatic sources said Hamas would give the funds that Haniyeh was carrying to the Cairo-based Arab League. In the past, the League has transferred money only to Abbas's office to get round restrictions on bank transactions with the government.
- REUTERS
