GAZA CITY, 21 July 2005 — Hamas said it wanted to draw a line under a bout of internal Palestinian clashes yesterday after its gunmen attacked the homes of a security chief and the Gaza leader of the governing Fatah faction. At least seven people were injured in the exchanges of fire with bodyguards after the attacks on the home of preventive security chief Rashid Abu Shbak and the head of Fatah in Gaza, Abdallah Franji, security and Hamas sources said.
While the security sources accused members of Hamas’ armed wing, Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, of initiating the latest violence, Hamas said the shooting had been started by the security services. Both attacks happened around dawn in the Tal Al-Hawa neighborhood of southern Gaza City.
The exchanges had imperiled a tentative agreement reached overnight between members of Hamas and Fatah to stop targeting each other. At least 22 people were wounded on Tuesday during clashes in the northern Gaza Strip between Hamas and members of either the security services or Fatah.
One of the main Hamas leaders in Gaza said it was imperative that the factions reserved their fire for their common enemy, Israel. “The Hamas movement announces an end to all tension and threats in the street,” Ismail Haniya told reporters. “We must conserve our weapons for use only against the occupation... Hamas is not the enemy of the PA (Palestinian Authority) and Fatah,” he added. Haniya confirmed that the movement was working with Fatah leaders to end the tension and remove from the streets gunmen from both factions.
Meanwhile, the Israeli Parliament overwhelmingly rejected a last-ditch move by right-wingers yesterday to delay the Gaza Strip pullout for up to a year as a mass rally to protest next month’s withdrawal fizzled out. A series of bills put forward by a number of MPs, including two former Cabinet ministers, were rejected after a stormy debate by a vote of 69-41, with two abstentions.
A sponsor of one of the bills, former Welfare Minister Zevulun Orlev, had proposed that the pullout not begin before July 2006, arguing that the government had made insufficient preparations to look after the 8,000 Gaza settlers. “The government is trying to fool us when it says that everything is ready to re-house the settlers,” he said.
Uzi Landau, another minister who left the government over his opposition to the pullout, said there was “no need for the obsession of respecting the August start date.” Sharon has consistently stressed that the pullout, expected to last less than a month after it begins on Aug. 17, will go ahead in line with his timetable.
