A top leader of the radical Islamic Hamas movement on Tuesday accused the newly sworn-in emergency Palestinian Cabinet of aiming to ”wage war” against the Palestinian resistance.
”The creation of an emergency government and decreeing a state of emergency means that the Palestinian Authority has agreed to form a government, under American and Zionist pressure, whose sole goal is to wage war against the Palestinian people’s legitimate resistance,” Abdelaziz Rantissi said on his website.
A nine-member emergency Cabinet headed by Ahmed Qorei took office on Tuesday after being sworn in by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
Qorei said that one of his top priorities would be ”trying to reach a mutual ceasefire with the Israeli side”.
The Cabinet held its first meeting immediately after a brief investiture ceremony and three days after a suicide blast rocked Israel, leaving 19 dead at a Haifa restaurant.
Sources close to the new premier had said on Monday the government would move against hardline factions such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad, but Qorei is also understood to be determined to avoid any descent into a civil war.
”We will not be pushed into a civil war … but we will not be lenient in imposing law and order,” he told the Palestinian daily Al-Ayyam. — Sapa-AFP