A/HRC/7/76 page 4 security forces and armed groups loyal to Hamas and Fatah throughout the period of March to May 2007, despite the Agreement. Some 350 people were reportedly killed and more than 2,000 injured in the first half of 2007 as a direct result of Palestinian internal armed clashes.1 6. By 14 June 2007, Hamas forces and armed groups attacked and seized Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority security installations and government buildings in the Gaza Strip. After a three-day siege, the security and military intelligence headquarters of the Palestinian Authority were taken over by Hamas. On 14 June, President Mahmud Abbas dismissed the Government of Prime Minister Haniyeh, declared a state of emergency, established an emergency government based in the West Bank and appointed Finance Minister Salam Fayyad as Prime Minister. Hamas refused to recognize the emergency government and set up a Hamas de facto administration in the Gaza Strip, whose legitimacy has never been recognized by the international community. 7. Following the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip, the West Bank-based cabinet formed by President Abbas gained widespread international support. The European Union and the United States of America normalized ties and resumed direct aid to the West Bank. Israel agreed to transfer hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenues it had seized, while tightening the economic and trade blockade of the Gaza Strip. 8. The European Union suspended the few aid projects it still maintained in the Gaza Strip, while Israel prevented the European Union border assistance mission at the Rafah crossing from operating, citing security reasons, resulting in the Rafah crossing being mostly closed ever since. Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia declared that the West Bank-based cabinet was the sole legitimate Palestinian Government. 9. While the Hamas Government in the Gaza Strip faced international diplomatic and economic isolation, efforts by the international community, in particular the Quartet, to support and strengthen the West Bank cabinet led, on 27 November, to the organization of the Annapolis Conference. At the Conference, President Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert agreed to resume negotiations by the end of 2007. In addition, the two sides agreed to work continuously to reach a two-State solution by the end of 2008, a commitment that was repeated on the occasion of United States President George Bush’s visit to Jerusalem on 9 January 2008. The visit was preceded by an agreement between the Israeli Prime Minister and the Palestinian President to create negotiation teams to address the five core issues of the conflict: settlements, Jerusalem, refugees, security and borders. 10. In the section below, the High Commissioner examines violations committed by three actors: the State of Israel as the occupying Power; the Palestinian Authority; and the de facto authorities of the Gaza Strip under the effective control of Hamas. 1 “Occupied Palestinian Territories Torn Apart by Factional Strife”. Amnesty International, October 2007. AI Index: MDE 21/020/2007.