Palestinian interior minister resigns

Gaza: 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.

Six people have been killed in factional violence in Gaza over the past 24 hours.

Al Qawasmi, picked by the rival Hamas and Fatah factions as a compromise candidate for the interior post, whose responsibilities include overseeing the security services, first tendered his resignation last month but had agreed to stay on.

A spokesman for Haniyah said Qawasmi, an independent member of the cabinet for whom security was a major responsibility, had quit over a security deployment last wek and because a request for more authority had not been granted.

"He asked for more authority which was not granted. He was not informed about the deployment last week and that's why he resigned," Ghazi Hamad said.