Ramallah: Dozens of Palestinian civil servants stormed a parliamentary session on Wednesday to demand long-overdue salaries, attacking Hamas lawmakers and forcing the parliament speaker to flee the building.
The demonstrators chanted slogans and banged on the door of the building before entering the hall.
As the chanting grew louder, several dozen protesters burst into the building and pelted Hamas lawmakers with water bottles, tissue boxes and other small items.
''We are hungry. We are hungry,'' the protesters screamed. ''Haniyeh, go home!''
During the melee, some demonstrators climbed onto lawmakers' desks. At one point, security guards broke up a scuffle between two female lawmakers. No injuries were reported.
Parliament speaker Abdel Aziz Duaik, a top Hamas official, fled the hall under heavy guard shortly before the crowd burst in. ''I'm not coming back until they leave,'' Duaik said as he rushed out.
Order was restored after about 45 minutes, and the session resumed.
Most of the demonstrators were thought to be Fatah activists. Later Wednesday, several hundred Hamas supporters marched peacefully in Ramallah to condemn attacks on government buildings.
''We ask, whose interests are you serving through these actions, burning down our institutions?'' Hamas leader Farhat Assad asked in a speech. ''It is uglier than the practices of the Israeli occupation.''
The Hamas-led government, weakened by international economic sanctions, has been unable to pay the salaries of civil servants since taking off more than three months ago. The financial crisis has caused severe hardship throughout the West Bank and Gaza.
Most of the demonstrators were believed to be members of Fatah, the rival movement of President Mahmoud Abbas which Hamas defeated in January legislative elections.
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