Palestinian Interior Minister Resigns

"I told all parties I cannot accept being a minister without authority," Qawasmi said. (Reuters)

"I resigned from my position because I am not willing to be a purely decorative interior minister without authority," Qawasmi told a televised press conference.

Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh has accepted the resignation, first submitted last month, government spokesman Ghazi Hamad confirmed.

Qawasmi had agreed to freeze his resignation after pledges from President Mahmoud Abbas to be given full authority over all security agencies.

"I could wait no longer. The situation is very edging and the Palestinian people would only lay the blame on the interior minister," a physically moved Qawasmi told reporters.

Haniyeh will personally run the interior ministry until a replacement is agreed upon, which is likely to take sometime in view of the need to reach a consensus between rival Fatah and Hamas on an independent to assume the key post.

Qawasmi himself was a compromise choice to break the logjam on forming the long-awaited national unity government agreed to under a February power-sharing deal between the two factions in the holy city of Makkah.

Filling the interior ministry post had been one of the main obstacles to forming the government.

Obstacles

Qawasmi, a former academic, said he was given an inadequate authority in dealing with the security chaos in the territories.

"From the beginning, I faced obstacles that robbed the ministry of its powers and made my position empty."

In his role as interior minister, Qawasmi was supposed to oversee all security agencies.

Officials said he was frustrated by competition from powerful Fatah rivals for control of the armed contingents.

"I reached the conclusion the whole (security) situation is not being dealt with seriously... The combined (security) force that has been agreed are opposing forces that are fighting as we speak," he said.

Qawasmi's resignation came after six Palestinians were killed in the worst 24 hours of factional fighting since the unity government took office.

Two Fatah activists were killed in northern Gaza City on Monday, a few hours after Fatah and Hamas agreed to an Egyptian-brokered deal to cease fire, withdraw militants from the streets and release abductees.

The agreement came after four Palestinians were killed on Sunday, May 13.

In Question

Qawasmi's resignation has cast doubts on whether power-sharing between Hamas Fatah could continue, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Moin Rabbani, an expert on Palestinian affairs at the International Crisis Group think-tank, said the Government was now in jeopardy unless it acted more decisively to exert control and overcome factionalism.

"This government has proven unable to overcome endemic factionalism on one of the key issues that it's meant to resolve, namely the security situation," he told AFP.

"Basically you're having members of the two main movements in the coalition government shooting and killing each other," said the expert.

"Unless there is a real effort to resolve these issues, it could be the beginning of the end of this experiment and, should this government collapse, the situation could get very much worse."

The government ordered an immediate deployment of security forces in Gaza Monday in an efforts to end infighting.

"The government decided today to deploy immediately security forces under control of the joint operation room and under the control of prime minister," said Information Minister Mustafa Barghuti.

"The government is asking all factions, Hamas and Fatah in particular, to support the government in this and not create any obstacles to this effort."