GAZA CITY, 19 December 2006 — Amid a shaky truce, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said yesterday he is pushing ahead with early elections, despite factional fighting that intensified after his initial call for a poll. He also appealed for international help in restarting peace talks with Israel.
Abbas said he is ready to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert anytime. “We need each other,” he said, adopting a much warmer tone than in the past.
Abbas spoke at a joint news conference with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who heaped praise on the Palestinian leader and urged the international community to rally behind him.
Abbas hopes a peace breakthrough with Israel can persuade his people to support him in a showdown with Hamas, the group that controls Parliament and the Cabinet.
Abbas announced Saturday that he is seeking new presidential and parliamentary elections to end months of deadlock with Hamas, whose refusal to moderate has isolated the Palestinians internationally and driven them deeper into an economic crisis.
Hamas has accused Abbas of trying to illegally topple its government. Fighting that had been raging between Hamas and Abbas-allied security forces in Gaza worsened after Abbas’ announcement.
Hamas spokesman Ismail Radwan said yesterday that Abbas’ insistence on holding elections amounted to a “coup against sovereignty and democracy.” The wave of violence in Gaza appeared to be diminishing yesterday after warring Palestinian groups said they had negotiated a truce.
Far fewer gunmen were seen in the streets than in the preceding days, but fighting still broke out in the middle of Gaza City early yesterday highlighting the shaky nature of the truce, when about two dozen masked fighters from the rival groups, armed with rifles, grenades and rocket launchers, faced off in a gunbattle that left a 16-year-old bystander with a bullet wound in the neck. Sporadic violence continued into the evening. Masked fighters shot and seriously wounded a Fatah member in Gaza City, and Hamas loyalists burned down the shop of a brother of a local Fatah leader in northern Gaza, and kidnapped another brother. Masked gunmen also kidnapped the brother of a Fatah lawmaker, officials said.
Fatah fighters responded by burning down a Hamas office and kidnapping a local Hamas leader. Despite the violence, both sides said they would honor the cease-fire. “We are trying to halt all breaches,” said Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum.
In a statement released by Hamas’ headquarters in Syria, the group said its exiled leader, Khaled Meshaal, spoke to several regional leaders and key mediators — including Qatar’s emir and Egypt’s intelligence chief — to discuss “how to contain the current tension in the Palestinian area.” The statement provided no details, but said Meshaal stressed Hamas’ commitment to “avoid inter-Palestinian fighting, dialogue as the only way to solve differences and problems with Fatah, and forming a national unity government.”
— With input from agencies
