GAZA CITY, 2 October 2006 — Militiamen from the ruling Hamas used guns, anti-tank launchers and grenades yesterday in gunbattles with security personnel loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas in an attempt to break up police and civil servant protests over unpaid government salaries.
The fighting killed eight people, including a 15-year-old boy Hasan Abu Hatal, and wounded 75, including three schoolchildren and a TV cameraman, hospital officials said. At least 15 of the wounded were civilians.
Dozens of supporters from Abbas’ Fatah party retaliated by ransacking and torching the empty Cabinet building in the West Bank city of Ramallah. The Fatah supporters had earlier marched through the city, the seat of the Palestinian government, burning tires and shouting, “Hamas, out, out.”
Hamas Radio accused Abbas of stoking the unrest and dividing the Palestinian people. It also attacked his efforts to pressure Hamas to recognize Israel, a move that could help to ease crushing international sanctions that have prevented the government from paying salaries.
Abbas ordered security personnel, most of whom are loyal to Fatah, not to take part in demonstrations. On Saturday, the Hamas-led government deployed all 3,000 Hamas militiamen across the Gaza Strip to stop the widening protests. By yesterday morning, the militiamen acted on their vow to break up unrest by force, if necessary.
The most serious clash took place near the Parliament building in Gaza City. After the crowd of protesters there swelled to include hundreds of police and civilians, Hamas militiamen rushed in, firing guns and anti-tank launchers, and lobbing grenades.
Militiamen and security personnel — including members of Abbas’ elite bodyguard unit — began trading fire on two of the main streets of Gaza City near Parliament, and gunmen from both sides took positions on rooftops near the legislature.
People scattered in all directions, and schoolchildren, some of them screaming, sought protection by covering their heads with their schoolbags. Two people were killed, a man and a teenager, and 32 were wounded, including three schoolchildren and a cameraman for the Arab satellite TV station Al-Arabiya.
Merchants closed shops, and downtown Gaza City was snarled in traffic because of the gunbattles. Plumes of acrid black smoke billowed up from cars that had been set on fire.
The clashes later spilled over to an area near the president’s residence. Hamas militiamen scrambled up to the rooftop of the nearby Agriculture Ministry and began firing rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns at the presidential guard, killing one.
Hospital officials later reported a fourth person killed.
Yesterday evening, a car from the Palestinian Preventive Security force came under fire from anonymous gunmen and a security officer was killed, security officials said.
Two others were killed in related violence, hospital officials said.
“We are going to beat with iron fists all those elements who are trying to sabotage the election process of our people, those who are trying to destroy our public properties and close the streets,” said Islam Shawhan, a spokesman for the militia. “We are not going to hesitate to take action against any of them.”
Shahwan said 25 security personnel were arrested.
“Nothing can justify this violence,” said Tawfik Abu Khoussa, a Fatah spokesman, blaming the government.
The chief of national security in southern Gaza, Jamal Kayed, said militiamen attacked both his force’s headquarters and its officers. “This shooting and violence must stop,” Kayed said.
Ghazi Hamad, a government spokesman, said the violence was “regrettable,” but the Hamas force acted with restraint and was attacked by the demonstrators.
“The protest today was beyond acceptable legal norms and turned truly into lawlessness,” he said.
In response to the violence, Fatah threatened to attack “Hamas interests in the West Bank,” a spokesman, known as Abu Qusai, told a Fatah radio station in Gaza.
Minutes later, Fatah protesters in Ramallah marched to the Cabinet building and began pelting it with stones, before breaking into it.
Some of the protesters lit an office on the second floor on fire, and soon the entire floor was engulfed in flames. They threw files out the windows and witnesses could see pieces of furniture being thrown about.
Since Hamas ousted Fatah from power earlier this year, Israel and the West have withheld tax payments and foreign aid to try to force Hamas to moderate.
— With input from agencies
