FACTIONAL clashes flared again in the Gaza Strip overnight between the ruling Hamas movement and president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah party, killing nine people in barely 24 hours. A Fatah loyalist, four Hamas members, a teenager and a toddler were killed in the volatile coastal strip and another two Hamas supporters died of wounds received in an attack on Thursday night, medics said.
The clashes came after two weeks of relative calm in fighting between the rival factions, which had killed more than 30 people since mid-December and threatened to derail renewed talks over forming a unity government.
Nabil al-Jarjir, a member of armed Fatah offshoot the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, was killed in the northern town of Jabaliya by troops from a controversial interior ministry force loyal to Hamas.
Fatah spokesman Maher Miqdad accused force members of "executing" Jarjir after surrounding his house. Hamas said Jarjir was killed "in a shootout" with interior ministry troops who had come to arrest him.
Calling Jarjir "one of the lackeys of the putschists," an allusion to Fatah leaders, the ruling party said he was the principal suspect in an attack on a jeep transporting Hamas troops in Jabaliya late on Thursday.
That attack wounded seven of the Hamas-run force and five bystanders. Two of the wounded Hamas men died in hospital overnight, medics said.
Palestinian prime minister Ismail Haniya called the jeep attack a "regrettable crime."
"We are working seriously on throwing light on the incident and finding those responsible," said Mr Haniya, who remains at the helm of a beleaguered Hamas-led government amid persistent deadlock in talks on a national unity administration acceptable to Western donors.
Soon after Jarjir's death, Hamas member Raed Soboh was killed and another wounded in Jabaliya when their car was fired on, medics said.
In the same neighbourhood, troops loyal to the ruling Islamists surrounded the house of another Al-Aqsa Brigades member, Mansur Shamayel, and fired several rocket-propelled grenades at it, witnesses said.
A teenage boy, 16-year-old Fadi Al-Khaldi, was killed by gunfire nearby, medics said.
In the southern city of Khan Yunis, a two-year-old was killed in the crossfire between the rival supporters.
In Gaza City, three Hamas loyalists were killed in exchanges with security force personnel under Abbas's command.
A general with the pro-Fatah security services, Jihad Sarhan, was also shot in the legs by Hamas forces in northern Gaza, security sources said.
Meanwhile, nine members of Hamas and five members of Fatah were kidnapped in tit-for-tat abductions in Gaza and in the occupied West Bank, nine Hamas members were kidnapped in the northern village of Kafr Qalil by Fatah, security sources said.
Deadly violence between Hamas and Fatah erupted on December 16 after Abbas called for early elections to resolve the standoff with Hamas over forming a coalition cabinet. Hamas rejected the move as a coup attempt against its democratically elected government.
Abbas is hoping that a unity government will lead the West to lift a debilitating aid freeze imposed on the Palestinian government after Hamas took office last March.
The European Union, the United States and Israel consider Hamas a terrorist organisation and are demanding that the Islamists renounce violence and recognise Israel and past peace deals before they resume the aid flow. But Hamas has steadfastly refused to do so.
Talks between the two factions resumed this week after Abbas met Hamas's exiled political supremo Khaled Meshaal in Damascus. The latest talks, which were due to happen today, was postponed after the renewed clashes.
Haniya said Hamas was "determined (to pursue) the dialogue" despite the violence. |
