RIYADH/GAZA, 10 October — Leaders of rival Palestinian factions urged supporters to restore calm yesterday after US-led airstrikes on Afghanistan triggered the Palestinians’ deadliest internal violence in years.
Trying to put a lid on the crisis, officials kept all schools and universities closed in the Gaza Strip, where three people were killed on Monday in clashes.
In Riyadh, Palestine President Yasser Arafat met with Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd and Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard yesterday. He thanked the Saudi leadership for its efforts to convince US President George W. Bush to take an initiative in support of the Palestinian state.
Informed sources told Arab News that Arafat condemned the statement made by Osama Bin Laden linking the terrorist attacks in the United States to the Palestinian issue.
The battle in Gaza reflected deep divisions between President Yasser Arafat, who wants to avoid antagonizing the United States as it launches a war on terrorism and other Palestinians groups.
Leaders of the major Palestinian factions, including Arafat’s Fatah organization and Hamas, met overnight and agreed to work together to restore order and unity in Palestinian-ruled areas.
A Hamas leader said: “What happened in Gaza, with great regret, is a black mark and is rejected by all.”
In occupied Jerusalem an Israeli government spokesman yesterday congratulated the Palestinian Authority on its police crackdown Monday on anti-American protests by students. But, the action drew flak from many Palestinian groups.
In Damascus, a faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization criticized the Palestinian Authority for confronting protests in Gaza against the US military action on Afghanistan.
“The Palestinian Authority must respect the right of citizens to air their opinions freely, notably solidarity with the Afghan people in the face of US aggression,” said the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP).
The Palestinian leadership, however, ordered an inquiry into the deaths of two young people during rioting.
In another development, Israeli tanks and armored bulldozers moved several hundred meters into Palestinian self-rule land in the Gaza Strip yesterday and flattened farmers’ fields, Palestinian security officials said.
Two brothers, aged 20 and 17, were injured in their home by tank fire when three bulldozers accompanied by several tanks made the incursion near the Gush Katif settlement bloc in southern Gaza, firing warning shots to Palestinian farmers to keep out of sight, Palestinian medics said. In a separate incident, a six-year-old boy was shot and slightly injured by Israeli soldiers in Rafah on the border with Egypt, the medics said.
