Hundreds of Palestinian security forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas went on a violent rampage against the Hamas-led government Monday night, riddling the parliament and Cabinet buildings with bullets before setting them on fire to protest an attack against their comrades in the Gaza Strip by Hamas gunmen.
A few hours earlier Abbas warned all Palestinian security personnel to go on high alert, after two Palestinians were killed and another 15 wounded in deadly clashes between the rival groups in the Gaza Strip town of Rafah.
It started when a member from a Hamas paramilitary unit was killed in a clash with members of a security force loyal to Abbas in Gaza earlier on Monday, witnesses said. The Hamas activist was shot dead when the two sides exchanged fire at a funeral march for another activist from Hamas, who died of wounds sustained in a firefight last week between the rival groups.
Meanwhile, the Hamas-dominated parliament moved on Monday to try to block Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' bid to hold a national referendum on a proposal that would implicitly recognize Israel's right to exist.
At the parliament session Monday, Hamas lawmakers challenged the legality of Abbas' decree on Saturday announcing the July 26 referendum. The stormy legislative session on the referendum Monday started with several hundred government employees demonstrating to demand salaries that have been withheld for more than three months because of the Western aid cutoff. "We want milk, we want food," protesters shouted.
