Gaza police forces arrest Abbas advisor

Tuesday November 13, 2007 15:38 by Rami Almeghari - IMEMC&Agencies

The Hamas-affiliated Gaza police on Tuesday arrested Kamal Alsherafi, an advisor to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, in the northern Gaza Strip.

Hamas-loyal police forces in Gaza/ archive photo

The arrest comes less than 24 hours after violence ripped through a large Fatah rally in Gaza, leaving at least seven Palestinians dead and scores more injured.

Earlier media reports indicated that a number of similar arrests were made on Monday night after the Interior Ministry of the de facto government vowed to bring to justice those who, it claimed, fired on its police forces.

The interior ministry spokesman, Ehab Algosain, on Monday stated "we have footage of those who opened fire at the police personnel from the rooftop of the nearby al-Azhar university and will bring to justice all those involved … no one is above the law."

Monday violence has been roundly criticized by various Palestinian factions, with Fatah branding them "part of Hamas' ongoing crimes against the Palestinian people in Gaza," and Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine describing the violence as "an excessive use of lethal force against the Palestinian people."

Hamas established control over the Gaza Strip in mid-June after a spate of bloody-infighting with the rival Fatah movement. President Abbas of Fatah outlawed Hamas shortly after the takeover and formed a caretaker government in Ramallah, calling on Gaza's population to boycott the Hamas government.

gaza strip | internal unrest | news report rami at imemc dot org