Hamas-Fatah tensions flare in Gaza

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA (Reuters) – Tensions between the Hamas-led government
and President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction flared into a
shootout at the Palestinian Health Ministry on Sunday, despite
pledges to calm an eruption of internal fighting.

At least four people were wounded after dozens of gunmen
from Fatah’s al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades stormed into the
ministry, where they were confronted by Hamas guards.

The guards from Hamas’s Izz el-Deen al-Qassam brigades
chased off most of the Fatah intruders and captured four of the
gunmen, tying them up and putting them into a police car as
people in the street cheered, witnesses said.

“The time has passed when our institutions and our police
can be attacked. Whoever holds a gun against one of our
institutions, or one of our policemen, opens himself for
death,” said Khaled Abu Hillel, spokesman for the Interior
Ministry.

About 20 people were hurt in armed confrontations in Gaza
on Saturday between students and militants from the two rival
movements. It was most serious fighting between Palestinians
since Hamas won a parliamentary election in January.

The violence followed the condemnation by exiled Hamas
leader Khaled Meshaal of Abbas’s veto of a new Gaza security
force formed by the Islamic group and headed by a top militant.

The appointment of Jamal Abu Samhadana, head of the Popular
Resistance Committees which has often attacked Israel, as
leader of the new Gaza police force was widely seen as an
attempt by Hamas to strengthen its grip on the powerful
Interior Ministry.

Abbas canceled the decision, a veto Meshaal said assisted a
Western campaign to isolate the Palestinian government.

Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, in an audiotape aired on
Sunday, said Western efforts to isolate Hamas, was an example
of the West’s “crusader war” against Islam. “This is a
crusader-Zionist war,” said the speaker who sounded like the
Saudi-born militant in the tape aired on Al Jazeera television.

Egyptian officials tried on Saturday to mediate an end to
Hamas-Fatah violence.

“The two parties have agreed to call on our people to stop
all forms of tension and to cement national unity,” Fatah
spokesman Mahar Meqdad said after a meeting between the groups.

Hamas and Fatah officials did not elaborate on what
practical steps would be taken on the ground to stop bloodshed.

“Internal orders were given to guarantee there would be no
return to friction,” said Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri,
adding that a joint Hamas-Fatah committee would be formed to
discuss how to handle any future disputes between the groups.

JENIN MARCH

In a show of force on Sunday , hundreds of armed
Palestinian security men in uniform marched through the town of
Jenin in the occupied West Bank in support of Abbas and Fatah.

Meshaal said after the violence on Saturday that Hamas
respected Abbas’s authority and called for Palestinian unity.

The Interior Ministry said the new Gaza force would work
from within the existing security establishment, headed mainly
by Fatah loyalists. But Abbas’s aides said only the Palestinian
president could make decisions regarding the government.

The Gaza Strip has seen growing lawlessness in recent years
among members of rival armed groups. Hamas and Fatah, however,
had rarely engaged in violent confrontations.

Sworn to Israel’s destruction, Hamas has rejected Abbas’s
calls to pursue a negotiated peace with the Jewish state.

Hamas has carried out nearly 60 suicide bombings against
Israelis since a Palestinian uprising began in 2000. But it has
largely abided by a truce since last year.