RAMALLAH, Jan. 25 (JMCC) - The expiration of the term of the Palestinian parliament Sunday aggravated tensions between Fateh and Hamas in the West Bank.
Palestinian Legislative Council speaker Aziz Dweik, of Hamas' Reform and Change list, announced that the body would continue to serve until the holding of new general elections.
Dweik is implicated in the coup Hamas staged against the legitimate Palestinian leadership, responded the leader of the parliament's Fateh minority, Azzam Ahmed, to the Jerusalem Post.
Immediately after his Sunday press conference, Palestinian security forces detained six of Dweik's aides.
The parliament has been unable to meet since Hamas forces overran Palestinian security installations in the Gaza Strip, effectively dividing the Palestinian leadership between Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Fateh in the West Bank.
Hamas won a clear majority in January 2006 parliamentary elections and briefly ran the Palestinian Authority government, but faced domestic rancor and an international funding boycott. A national unity government was later formed, only to be disbanded in June 2007 when Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip.