Ramallah, West Bank – A top PLO body gave its approval Thursday for President Mahmoud Abbas to hold new presidential and legislative elections, a high-stakes gamble meant to sideline Hamas militants but also bound to set off more confrontations between Palestinian rivals Fatah and Hamas.
Hamas, which won parliament elections last year, immediately threatened to derail a new vote.
Today, Israel started releasing more than 250 Palestinian prisoners in an attempt to bolster Abbas in his power struggle with Hamas.
A first batch of about 120 prisoners was put aboard buses at the Ketziot prison camp in southern Israel’s Negev desert early this morning, headed for the West Bank.
The transfer was scheduled to be completed by about midday when all 256 released prisoners are to meet Abbas at his Ramallah headquarters.
A two-day meeting of the 115-member Central Council of the Palestine Liberation Organization concluded Thursday with an endorsement of Abbas’ plan to stage elections and to switch to a proportional electoral system, under which voters cast ballots for parties rather than individual candidates. The decisions were adopted by consensus.
A senior Israeli security official, meanwhile, said Hamas militants have significantly stepped up weapons smuggling since taking over Gaza by force last month. He said Hamas has brought 20 tons of explosives into Gaza and is trying to import longer-range rockets. Israel’s military will have to intervene at some point to avert a growing threat, the official said.
Hamas rejected the Israeli claim. “This is not true,” said Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum. “They want to use this as a pretext to tighten the siege on Gaza.”
Abbas and Hamas have been wrangling over political legitimacy since the Gaza takeover. Abbas, separately elected in 2005, fired the Hamas-led government and installed a West Bank-based caretaker Cabinet of moderates. Hamas has denounced the measures as unconstitutional.
It remains unclear whether Abbas is serious about a new vote or simply trying to pressure Hamas to reverse its Gaza takeover.
