Al-Aqsa Brigades to continue Intifada
The armed wing of Palestinian President Yasir Arafat’s Fatah group has promised to continue its uprising against Israel’s occupation and criticised the formation of a new Palestinian government.
Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades said resistance was the only language understood by “the enemy”, in a statement released in the occupied Gaza Strip on Sunday.
The “Palestinian people turn their back on plots, including – on the order of Zionists and Americans – the formation of a new government seeking to end the Intifada and pursue” its resistance fighters, said the statement.
It was issued on the third anniversary of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s visit to al-Aqsa mosque compound, Islam’s third holiest site, which triggered the uprising.
Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades was formed at the start of the uprising in September 2000.
New cabinet
Arafat’s movement approved a new cabinet created by Palestinian Prime Minister designate Ahmad Quraya on Saturday.
Quraya must now meet the Palestine Liberation Organisation’s executive council, led by Arafat, to finalise his cabinet’s list before submitting it to parliament for approval, expected in the coming week.
Outgoing Prime Minister Mahmud Abbas resigned after four months, following a power struggle over the security apparatus with Arafat.
Fatah officials have said that Quraya has appointed Nasir Yusuf, an Arafat loyalist, as interior minister, replacing US-backed Muhammad Dahlan.
They said Yusuf would be “empowered” to impose security to end what Abbas had described as the “armed chaos” of resistance factions.