InFocus | Hamas in Power
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Sunday May 3
Al Aqsa TV defies Hamas government
Hamas's television station defied the Hamas-led Palestinian government yesterday by airing another weekly episode of a show featuring a Mickey Mouse lookalike who urges children to support armed resistance against Israel.
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Sunday May 3
Palestinian unions threaten strike
Palestinian Finance Minister Salam Fayyad plans to start paying partial salaries to government workers at the start of each month, a step union leaders said on Saturday fell short of the unity government's promises
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Sunday May 3
Palestinian interior minister resigns
Palestinian Prime Minister Esmail Haniyah accepted on Monday the resignation of his interior minister Hani Al Qawasmi, a government official said, after a surge in factional fighting.
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Sunday May 3
Haniya calls for restraint
Prime Minister Esmail Haniya, called yesterday for an end to looting of abandoned Fatah assets in Gaza and proposed reconciliation talks with President Mahmoud Abbas.
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Sunday May 3
Arab peace plan hangs in balance
Israel's escalation of its attack on Gaza amid a wave of inter-Palestinian bloodshed have cast doubt on the fate of the revived Arab peace initiative.
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Sunday May 3
Egypt withdraws diplomats
Egypt, a key Middle East peace broker and patron of the Palestinians, has withdrawn its envoys from Gaza in protest at the Hamas movement's violent ousting of its secular Fatah rivals, officials said yesterday.
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Sunday May 3
Hamas ends truce in Gaza
Hamas's armed wing, Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, declared a formal end on Tuesday to a five-month-old truce with Israel in the Gaza Strip and said the Jewish state was to blame.
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Sunday May 3
UN envoy blasts US for pro-Israeli agenda
The United Nations' outgoing Middle East envoy has accused the US of using undue pressure to impose a one-sided pro-Israeli agenda on diplomacy in the region.
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Sunday May 3
Palestinians split over US peace plan
Palestinian leaders failed to bridge differences on Sunday over a US plan that aims to bolster prospects for renewed peace talks with Israel by setting dates for both sides to take confidence-building steps.
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Sunday May 3
Israel warns of action on Gaza as fighting rages
Palestinian rival factions fought each other in Gaza on Friday and Israeli aircraft killed a Hamas fighter as Israel threatened to take "vibrant measures" to stop rocket attacks on its territory.
