ChristiansUnite Forums

Fatah brings reinforcements into Gaza from Egypt

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA, May 16 (Reuters) - Gunmen shot and wounded a top Egyptian official in Gaza on Wednesday as he tested whether a shaky ceasefire deal between feuding Fatah and Hamas loyalists was holding, a Palestinian security official said.

The Egyptian was shot in the hand as he walked along a Gaza street with the Palestinian cabinet secretary Ghazi Hamad of Hamas and a Fatah official, in a bid to see whether the armed rivals were sticking to the truce agreed on late Tuesday.

Taking the factional fighting into a fourth day, gunfire continued to echo through many Gaza streets for at least an hour beyond when the ceasefire, declared by Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh after the worst day of bloodshed in months, was to have taken effect.

The Egyptian was among a team involved in mediating the truce and trying to put an end to the fighting.

Egypt and Saudi Arabia have pressed Hamas and President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction to rein in their forces.

The sides have failed twice to observe truces that have been negotiated since the latest fighting erupted last Friday, killing at least 25 people.

At least 16 Palestinians were killed on Tuesday -- eight in one incident -- in the deadliest fighting between Hamas and Fatah since the rivals formed a unity government in March.

TRADING ACCUSATIONS

In the worst incident, Hamas gunmen killed eight members of Abbas's Presidential Guard in an attack near Karni Crossing, Gaza's main commercial entry point into Israel, Fatah sources said.

The Fatah-affiliated guardsmen were en route to help comrades under assault by Hamas at a training base near the crossing when Israeli forces across the frontier opened fire at them, according to Fatah spokesman, Tawfiq Abu Khoussa.

"Some of the vehicles overturned and some of the men were wounded. The forces retreated but they were ambushed by Hamas gunmen, who finished them off," he said.

Hamas's armed wing denied the allegation, blaming the deaths on Israel and accusing Fatah of killing one of its commanders earlier on Tuesday. The Israeli military said it had fired at two gunmen who approached the border fence, hitting one of them.

Raising tensions further, Hamas said one of its senior figures was "executed" at a checkpoint manned by Fatah fighters. Fatah had no immediate comment.

In an attempt to shift the focus of fighting towards Israel, gunmen fired a round of rockets at the town of Sderot, blowing part of the roof of one house and wounding four Israelis. Hamas claimed responsibility for the rocket fire.

Israel retaliated by aircraft fire into uninhabited areas of north Gaza, the army said. There were no reported casualties from that raid.

Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz had said Israel would try to avoid getting involved in the Gaza fighting, but the latest rocket attacks put new pressure on the Israeli government to step up its responses to rocket fire.

"Israel will not restrain itself forever ... we will choose the time and place to respond," Miri Eisin, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's spokeswoman, said on Tuesday.

Islamist Hamas and secular Fatah formed a unity government two months ago in a Saudi-brokered deal that failed to resolve the crucial issue of control over security forces, and left armed groups fighting deadly turf wars.

Fatah brings reinforcements into Gaza from Egypt (http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L15395920.htm)

8 Killed, 20 Injured in Hamas-Fatah Gunbattle in Gaza

Tuesday , May 15, 2007

AP
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip —
Hamas gunmen riddled a Fatah police jeep with gunfire at close range Tuesday, killing eight policemen in the most ruthless round yet of factional fighting, pushing the fragile Palestinian unity government closer to collapse.

Gunmen in black ski masks controlled the streets and terrified residents huddled in their homes. Israel, too, was briefly drawn into the battle.

"I don't know when it's going to end and what the future will bring," said Salman Abu Arafeh, 42, a Gaza City interior decorator who was pinned down by gunfire in the hallway of his apartment for several hours early Tuesday, along with his wife and two young children.

In the West Bank, Abbas called for the immediate implementation of a security plan that would put all rival forces under one command. However, his call is unlikely to be heeded: the fighting made it clear that the Hamas-Fatah power struggle was never really resolved, despite the formation of the unity government in March.

Gaza's turmoil further weakened hopes for a resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, despite a new push by the Arab world to bring the sides to the table, based on an offer of Arab recognition of Israel in exchange for an Israeli withdrawal from all lands it occupied in the 1967 Mideast War.

Israel has expressed major reservations, but Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Jordan's King Abdullah in a meeting in Jordan on Tuesday that he's ready to meet with Arab leaders in Israel or anywhere else to talk about the idea. Abdullah, in turn, asked Olmert to set a timetable for reaching a peace deal.

Negotiations, however, are inconceivable if the Palestinians descend into a protracted civil war.

This week's fighting was the worst since Hamas and Fatah agreed in February to share power. In all, 21 people have been killed and dozens wounded in three days of street fighting — including13 dead on Tuesday.

Early Tuesday, in the deadliest battle of this round, Hamas gunmen fired rockets, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars at a training base for Fatah forces guarding the Karni cargo crossing with Israel, Gaza's lifeline. U.S. security experts had helped set up the base to improve security at Karni.

After the initial attack, Hamas fired on Fatah reinforcements rushing to the scene, and one of the jeeps carrying Fatah fighters veered off the road and crashed. Hamas gunmen surrounded the vehicle and riddled it with gunfire, said one witness, who works in a nearby factory. "It was unbelievable. May God help us," said the man, who gave only his first name, Jamil, out of fear for his safety.

Eight men were killed, hospital officials said. Fatah security men came under fire as they tried to move the bodies lying near the overturned jeep.

Two Israeli helicopter gunships and three tanks moved toward the area, and Hamas fighters quickly withdrew. At one point, a major in the Palestinian Presidential Guard was killed by Israeli army fire as he tried to leave the Karni crossing through an exit near the Israeli border, security officials said.

Before sundown, Hamas said it fired five rockets at Sderot, an Israeli town near Gaza in retaliation for the Israeli attack. One rocket hit a house, seriously wounding an Israeli. It was the first time in three weeks that Hamas has claimed responsibility for a rocket barrage.

Israeli military officials said Israel has no intention of letting itself be drawn into the fighting.

However, Israel closed Karni, the only route for cargo into Gaza. The closure means Gaza will soon run out of fuel for its power plant and electricity to most of the strip could be shut down by Wednesday morning, said Abdel Karim Abdeen, head of the Palestinian Energy Authority.

The current round of fighting had many of the elements of previous Hamas-Fatah clashes: combatants kidnapped scores of rivals, set up roadblocks to search cars, took over rooftops of high-rises and often fired randomly in crowded residential areas.

Around Abbas' seaside compound in Gaza City, security forces loyal to the president searched cars, asking drivers to open trunks and inspecting ID cards of motorists. They gave those with beards — a possible sign of Hamas support — an extra close look.

However, both sides have also become more ruthless this time, with Fatah accused of an execution-style killing of two Hamas supporters Sunday and Hamas ambushing the Fatah jeep Tuesday. This might make it increasingly difficult to negotiate a cease-fire and revive the coalition.

At the core of the fighting is the unresolved power struggle between Hamas, which won parliament elections last year, and Abbas' Fatah, which dominated Palestinian politics for four decades. After a year in power and squeezed by an international aid boycott, Hamas realized it cannot govern alone and brought Fatah into the government. But the two sides never worked out all their differences, particularly control over security.

While the power-sharing deal largely halted factional fighting for three months, both sides continued to smuggle weapons through tunnels under the Egypt-Gaza border, preparing for the next round.

The spark for the new round was the deployment of 3,000 Fatah-allied members of the security forces in Gaza City last week, over Hamas' objections. Hamas has also bristled at Abbas' appointment of former Gaza strongman Mohammed Dahlan, a politician hated by many in Hamas, as his national security adviser.

"Palestinian society is now similar to Lebanese society — always in civil war or on the verge of civil war," said analyst Hillel Frisch of Israel's Bar-Ilan University.

"It's going to be cyclical: both sides know the tremendous costs, so they try to contain it, but the problem is simply left unresolved, and is probably unresolvable," he said.

Both sides accused each other of waging a carefully orchestrated campaign to destroy the other.

The National Security, a force loyal to Abbas, said Hamas is leading a military coup against the Palestinian security establishment. A Hamas spokesman, Abdel Latif Kanuah, said Fatah is involved in a U.S.-backed plot to overthrow Hamas, referring to U.S.-backing for Abbas' elite forces, the Presidential Guards.

Despite the unity government's shortcomings — it also failed to end the international embargo that was imposed on Hamas — it's unlikely Abbas will dissolve it and call early elections. Hamas would consider that an attempt to steal its election victory, and likely oppose it violently.

8 Killed, 20 Injured in Hamas-Fatah Gunbattle in Gaza (http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,272377,00.html)