GAZA: Senior Fatah official calls for self-restraint following renewed gunbattles in Gaza

Record ID: 376850

  • Title: GAZA: Senior Fatah official calls for self-restraint following renewed gunbattles in Gaza
  • Date: 9th May 2006
  • Summary: (BN05) GAZA CITY, GAZA (MAY 09, 2006) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF GUN BATTLE IN STREETS / AUDIO OF GUNFIRE/ PEOPLE RUNNING INJURED YOUTH BEING CARRIED THROUGH STREETS PEOPLE STOPPING TAXI AND PLACING INJURED YOUTH INSIDE WOMAN WATCHING FROM HOUSE VARIOUS OF PEOPLE RUNNING ON STREETS MORE OF PEOPLE IN STREET / AUDIO OF GUNFIRE
  • Embargoed: 24th May 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Defence / Military
  • Reuters ID: LVAXH9RMU341HC6AA0GVZ2YUMIX
  • Story Text: Nine people were wounded in a second day of fighting between gunmen from President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh's Hamas on Tuesday (May 09), the most serious Palestinian internal strife since Hamas won power.
    Three gunmen were killed on Monday (May 8) in clashes between the two factions, fuelled by a power struggle waged by Abbas and Haniyeh over control of security forces that has intensified Palestinian fears of a civil war.
    Medics said four teenagers on their way to school were among the wounded in Tuesday's fighting. Gunmen and police were also among those hurt in Gaza City's Tuffah neighbourhood, they said.
    The fighting subsided after about an hour, said Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri, whose militant Islamist group won parliamentary elections in January.
    "These unfortunate incidents are now under control, thanks to the cooperation of all," he said.
    Fatah officials said the fighting began when gunmen fired at a car carrying bodyguards of a senior Fatah official, Samir Masharawi. Hamas had no immediate comment on how the fighting started.
    "We in the Fatah movement still remain hopeful that people will exercise self-restraint as we have restrained ourselves. I don't think it's demanded of me or others when weapons come to my house to stand back with my hands tied. Despite that, we have exercised restraint and I praise God for this because every drop of Palestinian blood is sacred. The battle is against the occupation and those who besiege the Palestinian people. We are in need of a unified Palestinian stance and not the opposite. I think the basic national, moral question should be posed now to the Hamas movement and the Palestinian government," Masharawi told reporters.
    Monday's fighting in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis erupted over allegations Hamas gunmen had kidnapped at least one Fatah security official.
    Officials from both factions agreed to set up a committee to defuse tensions.
    Abbas and Haniyeh failed in weekend talks to resolve security disputes.
    Tensions between Fatah and Hamas deepened after Abbas appointed a Fatah loyalist to a senior post in the Interior Ministry, which supervises the security forces, so he could exert more influence over the Hamas-run ministry.
    Adding to the tension is a financial crisis caused by the freezing of aid to the Palestinian Authority by major donor countries until Hamas renounces violence, recognises the Jewish state's right to exist and embraces existing peace deals.
    Hamas says talks with Israel would be a waste of time.
    Local, regional and international banks, fearful of facing U.S. anti-terrorism sanctions and lawsuits, have refused to deal with the Authority.
    As a result, the Hamas-led government has been unable to pay salaries to 165,000 public employees since March, prompting the World Bank to express concern about a humanitarian situation that could render the West Bank and Gaza Strip ungovernable.
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