 | If I eat much more popcorn, they'll have to cut a hole in my house and lift me out with a crane... |
Gunmen set fire to the Palestinian prime minister's office on Monday as clashes escalated between his Islamist Hamas followers and President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement. The violence came as Abbas ordered security forces to take control of the streets in the wake of fighting with gunmen from the governing Hamas militant group, the latest sign of a deepening political crisis in the Palestinian territories. The Ramallah office of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh in the West Bank was unoccupied at the time. Haniyeh, from Hamas, is based in the Gaza Strip and does not have access to the Ramallah office because of Israeli curbs on his travel. Witnesses said police had gone into the office and removed the gunmen from the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade. The gunmen burned the top floor of the building, one official said. Abbas's "state of alert" came after Hamas militants besieged a headquarters of the Preventive Security Service, loyal to Abbas, in the southern Gaza Strip. |