Palestinian killed, Qrei government gets out of the bottleneck
The Palestinian prime minister Ahmad Qrei has announced that he had completed the formation of the new government and he will submit it to the parliament for ratification later this week.
With Qrei's announcement, weeks of internal political disputes ended, as Qrei gave up on most points of differences with the objective of allowing the chance to proceed forward to form the government by keeping the control on security departments under the control of President Yasser Arafat.
Qrei told journalists that he completed with Arafat the final formula to form the next government which is composed of 24 ministers. He added he will seek to win the confidence of the legislative council in its session expected on Wednesday.
In recent days, Qrei and Arafat held a series of meetings the last of which was yesterday. The first Palestinian minister explained that the meeting including drawing a "common formula for working in the next phase and the work and performance of the security department in a way to fulfill all our obligations." Qrei's previous efforts were stuck by obstacles to transfer security authorities to Lt. Gen. Naser Yousef who supports reforms and who was chosen by Qrei to assume the post of the minister of the interior. It was decided to assign Hakam Bal'awi, an associate to Arafat.
In the first Israeli reaction, an Israeli government source said that the agreement pertains to the formation of a new Palestinian government under Arafat's control and for reviving the peace process.
A source at the office of the Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon said "This government.. guarantees to keep the alliance of terrorism, led by Arafat in controlling the Palestinian life.. It is not the beginning if you want to proceed forward into the roadmap. However, an assessment on the new Palestinian government will be based on its performance."
Meantime, the Palestinian youth Samer Abu Aseb died because of his wounds he had four days ago when the Israeli forces invaded Balata camp for the Palestinian refugees near Nablus in the West Bank.
The Israeli forces broke yesterday at dawn into Aida camp and al-Doha town in Bethlehem which is under the Palestinian security control. The breaking in operation resulted in detaining seven Palestinians, the majority of them are activists of the Palestinian national liberation movement ( Fatah) before its withdrawal.
The villages of Beit Reima, Deir Ghassaneh and Kafer Ein which are close to Ramullah in the West Bank have been under a curfew by the Israeli forces since three days. Houses of Palestinians in these villages are under continued inspection campaigns.
This military Israeli escalation came after one bloody day in the West Bank and Gaza resulted in killing four Palestinians.
In a campaign against the wall of separation built by Israel inside the West Bank annexing thousands of hectares of lands, yesterday was declared as a national and international day against the wall.