16 Palestinian “Gunmen” Storm Election Offices
Palestinian gunmen have stormed election offices in the Gaza town of Khan Younis ahead of the January parliamentary poll, witnesses say.
Gunmen are also said to have surrounded a poll office in the town of Rafah.
A dispute within the ruling Palestinian party, Fatah, has led to a rival faction submitting its own list of candidates for the parliamentary poll.
Meanwhile, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has appealed to militant groups to halt rocket attacks on Israel.
He made the plea at a meeting of armed groups in Gaza, ahead of the 25 January poll.
The election will be only the second since the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in 1995.
Chaos fears
Tensions within Fatah turned to violence earlier this month when three people were injured in clashes at the party headquarters in Gaza.
The clashes began after gunmen from Fatah’s new guard stormed the building and demanded the party’s primary results be respected.
Correspondents say the so-called old and new guard have disagreed for some time over the direction the party should take.
There are fears that the infighting could throw Palestinian politics into chaos and could even threaten the election process itself, they say.
Fatah is expected to face a strong challenge in January’s poll from the militant Islamist group, Hamas.
Meanwhile, Israeli planes have attacked what the IDF says was a Palestinian military installation in Lebanon. What would any other country’s response be if any other country bombed their soil?
[tags]Israel, Palestine, Palestinian, Elections, Lebanon[/tags]
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