GAZA CITY, 23 December 2006 — Highlighting the fragility of a new cease-fire, ferocious gunbattles broke out between Hamas and Fatah fighters in the Gaza Strip and West Bank early yesterday.
In other tension between the two factions, the office of President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah blocked five major Hamas appointments to senior government positions. Earlier this week, Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas accused Abbas of trying to subvert the government’s authority by refusing to authorize the appointments.
Abbas’ power struggle with Hamas turned violent earlier this month after he declared that efforts to form a more moderate coalition government with the anti-Israel Islamic group had broken down.
The street battle early yesterday in Gaza City, which encompassed Abbas’ residence and the home of Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar of Hamas, broke out as Hamas fighters tried to free two colleagues kidnapped Thursday.
In the charged atmosphere pervading Gaza, the firefight quickly spread out of control. Within minutes, it encompassed the presidential guard outside Abbas’ house, other security officers in the area and the Hamas fighters guarding Zahar’s home and the nearby Foreign Ministry building.
Gunmen manning strategic rooftop positions began shooting at other armed men in the streets.
The presidential guard took up defensive positions behind newly built walls of sandbags and cement block barriers outside the residence of Abbas, who was not in Gaza at the time.
Hamas officials said Fatah gunmen shot at Zahar’s home.
One witness estimated that more than 2,000 bullets were fired in the first 10 minutes of the shootout, and several rocket-propelled grenades were also launched. Despite the scale and intensity of the fighting, no one was wounded, health officials said.
Residents of the neighborhood, the scene of other gunbattles over the past week, said they put their children in bathtubs for protection against stray bullets. Others tucked themselves in corners for safety.
The violence died down after about 20 minutes as clerics and other mediators worked to restore calm.
A Hamas fighter injured in the course of the kidnapping Thursday, Ayman Jirjawi, died of his wounds early yesterday, said Islam Shahwan, a Hamas spokesman.
Hamas accused a Fatah-linked clan of carrying out the abduction to avenge the deaths of two clan members in factional fighting in Gaza last week. The fighting left 16 people dead and dozens injured before the truce took effect Tuesday night.
In Gaza City yesterday, Haniyeh urged gunmen to spare Palestinian blood, and said government officials were working to bring the violence under control.
The internal violence has been mostly confined to Gaza, but fighting spilled over to the West Bank town of Nablus yesterday morning. Witnesses and medics said about a dozen gunmen from Hamas and Fatah clashed near a soccer stadium where Hamas men were preparing for a rally. Palestinian hospital officials said six people were wounded.
Terrified residents huddled in their homes. Tiham Tufah, who lives near the stadium, said she hid with her husband and two daughters in their living room. “We feel caught in the middle of a big war, and we are really afraid,” Tufah said. “We can’t leave the house or look out the window. We live in fear.” The factional fighting — the violent mirror of Abbas’ power struggle with Hamas — also played out on the bureaucratic level yesterday. In a letter to Haniyeh, Abbas’ Chief of Staff Rafiq Husseini deemed five senior Hamas appointments to the Palestinian Authority to have been illegal.
Adnan Amr, a legal adviser to Abbas, said the president rejected 40 appointments in all. Salah Bardawil, a Hamas lawmaker, said the senior appointments were knocked down by those in the president’s office “who want a coup.”
In a related development, a top Abbas aide, Azzam Al-Ahmed, reiterated the Palestinian president’s offer on Thursday to resume coalition talks with Hamas, but said the offer would only be good for a week or two.
Abbas had hoped a more moderate coalition between Hamas and Fatah would allow the West to resume desperately needed aid, cut off to pressure the Hamas government to recognize Israel and renounce violence.
Yesterday, Haniyeh pronounced Hamas ready to resume negotiations, but indicated the group would continue to reject the international demands. “We are ready to begin discussions on a unity government on the basis of Palestinian conditions,” he said.
After declaring earlier this month that the talks had reached a dead end, Abbas announced last week that he would call early elections to end Hamas’ 9-month-old rule.
The intensified Palestinian infighting has coincided with stepped-up rocket attacks on Israeli territory that have destabilized a shaky cease-fire with Israel.
One rocket was fired at Israel early yesterday, in addition to six launched on Thursday, the army said. The attacks Thursday caused no injuries to Israelis, but wounded three Palestinian children when a rocket veered off course, hospital officials and a relative said.
Israeli officials say Palestinian fighters have fired nearly 50 rockets since the Nov. 26 truce took effect. Israel has not retaliated, but Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned this week that his patience was wearing thin.
— With input from agencies
