"First Crack" Hits Palestinian Govt.

"I fear that his resignation is a prelude to the collapse of the government," said Masri.

"Qawasmi's resignation is the first crack in the unity government and augurs ill for this cabinet," Hani Al-Masri told IslamOnline.net.

"I fear that his resignation is a prelude to the collapse of the government," he said.

"What I fear is that other ministers will follow suit if the internal Palestinian chaos and lawlessness pursued," added Masri.

Qawasmi resigned his post after just six week of taking office. Haniyah, however, rejected his resignation and persuaded him to stay on in the job.

But the day's turbulence put a spotlight on deep differences within the unity government that Haniyeh's Hamas and Fatah movement formed a month ago in a landmark agreement brokered by Saudi Arabia to try to end factional fighting in which dozens were killed.

In his role as interior minister, Qawasmi was supposed to oversee the security services. But President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah appointed Mohammad Dahlan to serve as national security adviser.

Minister of Information Mostafa Al-Barghouthi said Abbas, Haniyeh and Qawasmi would meet to tackle unspecified obstacles to the implementation of the interior minister's 100-day plan to bring order to the Gaza Strip and that this had addressed the minister's concerns.

Jibril al-Rajoub, a Fatah official once senior in the security apparatus, described the move as a protest.

"This is a protest in a loud voice. He doesn't want to be anyone's puppet. But in the absence of a system, no interior minister can function properly," he told Reuters.

Hard-won Cabinet

Haniyeh (L) rejected the resignation of Qawasmi (R). (Reuters)

Analysts agreed that it is difficult to find a substitute to Qawasmi, who is a compromise choice reached by Hamas and Fatah for the influential and key portfolio.

"It is a hard-won cabinet," said Masri.

"Both groups have taken pains to reach common grounds on this particular portfolio," he added, expecting that Qawasmi would insist on his resignation if nothing has changed.

Masri said it is high time that both groups restructured the security apparatus to head off potential crises.

"The phenomenon of self-style militias and weapons chaos in the Strip must come to an end," he stressed.

Political analyst Ayman Youssef agreed with Masri.

"The resignation of Qawasmi threw a spanner in the works of the nascent unity government," he said.

"It took Fatah and Hamas months to reach a consensus on the interior minister," he added.

"It is a major challenge to the national unity government," he told IOL.

He predicted a quick collapse of the government in view of the deteriorating economic conditions.

"This government has not achieved anything so far whether on the internal or external fronts," he said. "The economic situation is getting worse and lawlessness aggravating."

Palestinians have been gripped by their worst economic crisis with tens of thousands of civil servants going unpaid, greatly affecting the livelihood in the occupied territories, after the US and EU cut off key aid to the Palestinian Authority in March of last year after Hamas took office.

The UN said last month that nearly half of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and West Bank are malnourished and are vulnerable to food insecurity.