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Abbas to meet Hamas leaders in bid to reach factional settlement
 
By Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz Correspondent, and Agencies
 
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas hopes to meet with leaders of Hamas in Gaza on Saturday to discuss a settlement to ongoing fighting among Palestinians, which entered its sixth consecutive day on Friday.

On Friday, Palestinian officials conferred among themselves and with other Arab leaders in an attempt to solicit their help in cooling the raging violence in the Gaza Strip.

Abbas spoke by phone with Hamas' leader Khaled Mashaal, who urged senior Hamas and Fatah officials to meet, and with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Palestinian Information Minister Mustafa Barghouti met with King Abdullah of Jordan on the sidelines of an international conference at the Dead Sea.

A Fatah militant and a Hamas militant were killed in factional clashes in Gaza City on Friday evening. Earlier Friday, 40-year-old Palestinian fisherman Samir Amodi was shot in the head as he got caught in the crossfire while standing in Gaza City's harbor.

The warring Palestinian factions traded accusations Friday, with Hamas branding Fatah members traitors, and Fatah saying that Hamas had no intention of abiding by a cease-fire.

Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates' Abu Dhabi TV bureau chief in Gaza was kidnapped briefly by Hamas on Friday. Abdel-Salam Abu Askar, an associate of Fatah strongman Mohammed Dahlan, was freed several hours later, and was dropped off by a military jeep belonging to the Hamas Executive Force. Hamas had earlier denied involvement in the abduction.

Palestinian sources said that the bureau director of a senior Fatah leader in Gaza, Abdullah Franji, had also been snatched by Hamas on Friday.

Fresh fighting broke out Friday near Gaza City's Islamic University, with Hamas firing grenades at Fatah forces and Fatah responding with a hail of gunfire.

Hamas fighters in control of the university battled Fatah forces who had taken up positions in the nearby foreign ministry building. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas on Friday called on Palestinians to unite against "Israeli aggression" and cease internal fighting.

"All members of the security services should abide by the instructions of the political leadership and return to their positions and bases, and also all gunmen should pull out of the streets," Haniyeh told reporters.

At the center of the fighting is a dispute over who controls the security forces in the territories. A majority of the 80,000 security officers in the West Bank and the Strip are loyal to Abbas of Fatah, while Hamas set up its own 6,000-strong militia last year.

The fighting has all-but destroyed a two-month-old power sharing deal between them, and brought the Palestinians close to all-out civil war.

On Friday, Hamas Web sites, radio and TV carried accusations that forces loyal to Abbas were working with Israel, a charge dismissed as absurd by a Fatah spokesman.

On Friday, Hamas TV also named three Fatah security chiefs who it said were in secret contact with foreign security personnel to exchange information on Palestinian militant groups.

"They are deep into treason, and we will deal with them accordingly," the broadcast said. The TV did not specify which foreigners, but Fatah forces affiliated with Abbas have received advice and training from the U.S.

With his aides citing security concerns, Abbas canceled a Thursday trip to Gaza for talks with Haniyeh.

The Gaza street battles were down from their height two days ago Friday, but the most recent cease-fire worked out between the sides was not holding.

General Jamal Kayed, Fatah's security commander in Gaza, said his group had already begun implementing the cease-fire but said Hamas was not willing to follow suit.

Walid al-Awad, a member of a committee set up to implement the cease-fire, said his team worked late into the night to get the sides to withdraw from the streets, but to no avail.

"Nothing has been implemented, and I have warned both sides that this a time bomb that is sabotaging our efforts," al-Awad said.

Gunfire could be heard in many areas in Gaza, and gunmen who had promised to withdraw from the streets were still manning roadblocks and taking up positions on rooftops.

"Our retaliation for [Fatah's] crimes is going to be beyond their imagination," Abu Obeida, spokesman for Hamas's military wing, said Friday.

Earlier Friday, two Palestinians were wounded near the government complex in the Gaza Strip and another was hurt in an exchange of fire outside the Islamic University, a Hamas stronghold.

Hamas officials said Abbas's Presidential Guard was firing grenades at their fighters. The office of the university's president, Kamelen Shaath, was attacked by rocket propelled grenades, according to Hamas.

Shaath appealed for an immediate halt to the violence.

"Universities must be outside the circle of violence and I appeal to the president and all the wise people on both sides to try and spare the university the agony of this fight," he said.

Nearly 50 people, mostly Fatah members, have been killed since the fighting erupted Sunday. At least 17 people were killed Wednesday alone, in the worst single day of fighting since Fatah and Hamas agreed to form the unity government.
 
Abbas to meet Hamas leaders in bid to reach factional settlement (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/861133.html)