Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah
party nominated him as its candidate for upcoming presidential elections, a
senior Fatah official said on Saturday.
"Fatah is ready to run in the presidential elections and Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas is the movement's candidate," said Ahmed Qurei, the chief
Palestinian peace negotiator.
Abbas was elected president in January 2005 after the death of Yasser Arafat,
but the vote was not contested by Hamas, the biggest Islamic faction in the
Palestinian territories.
Hamas said it will not support Abbas if he runs for reelection when his term
ends on January 25, 2009.
The president said earlier this week that he was in favour of early
parliamentary and presidential elections, but did not name a date.
In a gesture of reconciliation, Abbas said he is ready for dialogue to end the
feud that saw him fire the unity government with Hamas a year ago after the
Islamic group seized control of the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian security forces loyal to Abbas arrested four Hamas members in the
West Bank towns of Bethlehem, Tulkarm and Qalqilya, Hamas said in a press
statement.
Calm returned to the border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip on
Saturday after Egypt deployed large numbers of security forces as a precaution
after comments by Hamas leaders that were seen to imply violence.
Some Hamas leaders had hinted at "untraditional solutions" to lift
the Israeli blockade from the enclave, while Palestinians staged a
demonstration at Rafah, demanding that the Rafah border crossing be opened.
A total of 1,000 police officers and 500 security forces were deployed across
the border on Friday, while the main routes to Rafah city were placed under
intense security control, security sources were quoted as saying in the daily
al-Mas al-Youm newspaper on Saturday.
For 12 days in January, at least 350,000 Palestinians flooded Egypt's border towns to stock up on supplies made scarce by an Israeli blockade of the territory
that was imposed in response to rocket attacks from Gaza on Israeli border
towns.
A Palestinian farmer was wounded Saturday by Israeli fire in Khan Younis city
in the southern Gaza Strip, hospital officials said.
Mohammed Qudeh, 46, was slightly injured when Israeli forces, positioned on the
border, opened fire while farmers were working in their fields, they said.
Meanwhile, Palestinian militants said they fired missiles and mortars at the
southern Israeli port city of Ashkelon and an Israeli army base near the Nahal
Oz crossing east of Gaza city, dpa reported.
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