GAZA CITY, 3 February 2007 — Fierce fighting raged for the second day yesterday in the Gaza Strip between Hamas and Fatah gunmen as a Palestinian official said President Mahmoud Abbas and exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal will hold peace talks in Makkah on Tuesday.
Fatah fighters stormed a Hamas-affiliated university, setting buildings on fire. Seventeen people, including four children, died in battles that raged across the narrow strip.
Gazans huddled in their homes to escape the crossfire, which killed a total of 24 people and wounded 245 since fighting erupted Thursday. Hospital officials said they were running out of blood to treat the wounded.
“Gaza is being burned down,” Arafat Abu Eyad said from his smoke-filled balcony overlooking smoldering buildings.
Later, Abbas and Meshaal declared a cease-fire between their feuding factions. “President Abbas and Hamas political chief Meshaal held a phone conversation this evening and agreed to make an effort to end the fighting,” presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
The two leaders also agreed to meet in Makkah next Tuesday on the initiative of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, he added. Osama Khayyat, imam of the Grand Mosque in Makkah, praised the efforts of the king to stop the infighting among the Palestinians. “This is a great thing that deserves all praise and prayer,” said the imam about the king’s call to leaders of feuding Palestinians factions for an emergency meeting in Makkah to settle their differences amicably.
In an attack fraught with symbolism, Fatah forces yesterday raided a Hamas stronghold, the Islamic University in Gaza City, setting fire to two buildings and sparking a heavy firefight with Hamas forces. Masked men in black uniforms ran through the campus and took up positions on the roof of the university’s mosque.
Hamas gunmen vowed revenge, and hours later, group members attacked two buildings of the Fatah-affiliated Al-Quds University at two separate locations in Gaza, Palestinian security officials said. A witness said gunmen fired mortar rounds at the lone building on the campus, then doused it with fuel.
Middle East power brokers — the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States — yesterday expressed concern over ongoing Palestinian violence and reaffirmed an economic and diplomatic boycott on the Hamas-led government.
“The Quartet reiterated its call for an immediate and unconditional end to all acts of violence and terror” and expressed “deep concern at the violence among Palestinians,” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in Washington.
— Additional input from agencies
