Jordan Times
Monday, October 2, 2006
King, Mubarak urge end
to Palestinian fighting
Street battles across Gaza Strip kill 8
Agencies
KING ABDULLAH AND Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Sunday warned against
grave consequences of internal Palestinian fighting and its adverse effects on
the Palestinians and their cause.
During talks in Cairo, the King and Mubarak urged calm, self-restraint and an
end to the confrontations, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.
Hamas fighters’ efforts to break up anti-government protests Sunday sparked
running street battles across the Gaza Strip that killed eight people in the
worst internal Palestinian violence since Hamas took power, according to the
Associated Press.
Men from the opposition Fateh group retaliated by torching the Palestinian
Cabinet building in Ramallah and attacking Hamas offices throughout the West
Bank.
The fighting continued throughout the day and sent schoolchildren and other
civilians in downtown Gaza City fleeing for cover.
The King and the Egyptian president yesterday called on Palestinian factions to
help preserve national unity and safeguard Palestinian interests, including the
right to establish an independent state, Petra said.
The two leaders said they backed Palestinian efforts to form a national unity
government, which would adopt a unified stand on the peace process.
The spasm of violence dampened already fading hopes for the creation of a
national unity government between the two groups that could end crippling
economic sanctions.
King Abdullah and Mubarak discussed means to revive the peace process and resume
talks between the Palestinians and the Israelis.
They urged the international community to resume channeling economic aid to the
Palestinians, who were undergoing harsh conditions.
President Mahmoud Abbas, of Fateh, ordered an investigation into the fighting.
“These confrontations have crossed the red line, which we have avoided crossing
for four decades,” he said in a speech broadcast on Palestine TV.
Abbas, who was in Jordan, also took a swipe at Haniyeh. “The prime minister and
his Cabinet should take responsibility for preserving the law,” he said.
Looking to a possible new Israeli offensive, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail
Haniyeh, of Hamas, urged Palestinians to end the internal violence.
“As prime minister, I call on all citizens to show responsibility and to be
above disagreements, especially in the face of a serious escalation from the
occupation forces, which is threatening to expand the aggression on Gaza,” he
said.
Haniyeh also defended the Hamas men, saying they acted lawfully in trying to
break up the protests, which he said had gotten out of hand.
“This is forbidden in Islam, we are in the Holy Month of Ramadan,” said Majed
Badawi, 33, who managed to escape uninjured after his car was caught in the
crossfire. “It’s a shame on Hamas, who call themselves real Muslims, and a shame
of Fateh as well. Why are they fighting and over what? We are victims because of
both of them.” Late Sunday, Mubarak called on Egyptian diplomats in Gaza to hold
a meeting with security commanders on both sides to resolve the violence,
Egyptian officials said.
Violence between Fateh and Hamas loyalists plagued Gaza throughout the spring,
but largely disappeared when Israel launched a wide scale offensive here in late
June after Hamas-linked fighters captured an Israeli soldier.
Israel’s army chief, Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, said Sunday that the military was
considering another ground offensive in Gaza to stop fighters from firing
homemade rockets into Israel.
Hours later, Israeli tanks, bulldozers and troops moved into northern Gaza. The
army said the operation was aimed at preventing rocket fire.
Hamas has been under fire since it took over the Palestinian Authority after its
January election victory over Fateh.
Israel and the West, which view Hamas as a “terror” group, cut off hundreds of
millions of dollars in aid and tax transfers to the Palestinian Authority,
making it nearly impossible for the new government to pay its 165,000 workers.
Abbas has tried to end the crisis by persuading Hamas to form a coalition
government and recognize Israel. Hamas has resisted compromising its ideology.
In recent weeks, civil servants — including members of the security forces, many
of them Fateh loyalists — held expanding protests against the Hamas-led
government to demand their back wages.
On Saturday, the Hamas government sent its 3,500-member force into Gaza’s
streets to quash the protests. Hamas set up its force — which answers to the
interior minister — after losing a power struggle with Abbas for control of
Palestinian security forces.
The fighting started in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis, where the men
tried to disperse dozens of police protesting for their back wages Sunday
morning. Two bystanders were wounded in the ensuing gun battle. A late morning
gun battle between security officers and men then broke out in northern Gaza.
The violence spread to the parliament building in Gaza City, where protesting
security officers and civil servants threw stones at nearby Hamas men. The men
responded by hitting them with sticks and then by firing guns and anti-tank
rockets and lobbing grenades at the protesters, according to an Associated Press
journalist at the scene.
Men and security personnel — including members of Abbas’ elite bodyguard unit —
traded fire on nearby streets, and armed groups from both sides took positions
on rooftops.
People scattered in all directions, and schoolchildren, some of them screaming,
covered their heads with their schoolbags for protection. Merchants closed
shops, and downtown Gaza City was snarled in traffic. Plumes of acrid black
smoke billowed from cars that had been set on fire.
The clashes later spilled over to an area near the president’s residence, and
Hamas men on the rooftop of the nearby Agriculture ministry fired
rocket-propelled grenades and rifles at the presidential guard.
In his speech, Abbas ordered the security officers to abandon their protests and
return to their posts and called on the Hamas force to leave the streets.
The street battles killed a total of four people, including a presidential
bodyguard and a 15-year-old boy, according to Dr. Baker Abu Safia, director of
Gaza’s Shifa Hospital. Two others were killed in related violence, and at least
100 were injured, hospital officials said.
A seventh person, a member of the Preventive Security Force, was killed Saturday
night when the car he was in was shot at by unknown gunmen, security officials
said.
An eighth person, a Fateh supporter, was killed after thousands of Fateh
protesters in the Bureij refugee camp marched to the house of a local Hamas
leader and a grenade was thrown into the crowd, setting off a nighttime
gunfight, Fateh officials said. Hamas officials said the crowd attacked the
house.
In response to the violence, Fateh protesters in the West Bank city of Ramallah
marched to the Cabinet building — which had already been shut down for the day —
pelted it with stones, broke in and set the second floor on fire. A second
building in the compound was also set ablaze.
The protesters then trashed the offices of a Hamas newspaper.
In the West Bank city of Hebron, Fateh-allied fighters blocked roads with
burning tyres and ransacked the offices of local Hamas lawmakers and set the
furniture on fire in the street. In Nablus, Fateh gunmen attacked a Hamas
women’s centre, and traded fire with Hamas men.