Hamas and Fatah "unity" troubles increase

YNet reports:

Palestinian forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas have clashed with Hamas supporters late on on Monday despite a unity deal between the two rivals, witnesses said.

The confrontation was the latest sign reconciliation efforts are in trouble.

Police broke up a Hamas rally in the West Bank late on Monday. Hassan Yousef, a Hamas leader, said officers stopped a convoy of 30 cars, seized Hamas banners and beat him and other protesters as well as journalists.

Meanwhile, in Gaza, Hamas has kept the banks closed for the seventh consecutive day not allowing any workers to receive their salaries - or even the families of terrorists from receiving their "salaries." Hamas is closing the banks because Abbas refuses to pay the 50,000 or so Hamas workers who took over the jobs of Fatah workers who were forced out in the Hamas Gaza coup. (The Fatah workers continued to draw salaries for years even when they weren't working.)

Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya said yesterday that his movement should repudiate the reconciliation agreement. In regards to the bank crisis in Gaza, he asked how the new "unity" government could pay the absent Fatah workers and stop paying the Hamas workers who are actually working.