The Islamic Hamas and the Palestinians' ruling Fatah party agreed early yesterday to end their recent round of armed clashes, which have taken place against the backdrop of Israel's planned Gaza Strip withdrawal.
Hours later, however, Hamas opened fire on the home of a top Palestinian security chief.
The clashes, coming as Israeli police confront their own opposition over the withdrawal, began last Friday, when two Palestinian teens were killed in a gunbattle. On Tuesday, the unrest led to Hamas offices torched by arsonists, wrecked cars and casualties on both sides.
Leaders of the two movements announced the accord at a news conference after midnight in Gaza City.
"We agreed to withdraw all armed forces from the streets of northern Gaza," local Hamas leader Mizar Rayyan said.
Barely two hours later, Hamas gunmen refused to stop at a Palestinian police roadblock in Gaza, and then opened fire on the homes of Palestinian police chief, Rashid Abu Shbak, and Fatah leader Abdullah Efrangi, said Soufian Abu Zaida, a Cabinet minister and top Fatah official.
Abu Zaida played down the incident, however, saying the situation was under control.
The tension is related to Palestinian rocket and mortar barrages against Israeli settlements in Gaza and towns just outside the territory, a month before Israel's scheduled pullout. Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas wants to coordinate the pullout with Israel, while the militants prefer to step up attacks and claim credit for driving the Israelis out by force.
About 20km away in Israel, police were surrounding a farming village where several thousand Israeli opponents of the Gaza pullout were camping out for a second night, hoping to march on Gaza and reinforce settlers who plan to resist evacuation.
Police declared the gathering illegal but made no move to break it up, while insisting they would not allow the protesters into Gaza itself.
With control of Gaza after the pullout at stake, Abbas is trying to contain increasingly defiant Islamic militants.
Fatah unofficially asked its affiliated militant group, the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, to help fight Hamas as Abbas seeks to ensure a smooth Israeli pullout from Gaza settlements, Fatah and Al Aqsa members said.
Abbas said in Gaza on Monday that he still preferred negotiations to temper militants' behavior, but he has recently begun using force, keenly aware of Hamas' growing power after it won a series of regional elections.
Drug lord Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, alias “Fito,” was Ecuador’s most-wanted fugitive before his arrest on Wednesday, more than a year after he escaped prison from where he commanded the country’s leading criminal gang. The former taxi driver turned crime boss became the prime target of law enforcement early last year after escaping from a prison in the southwestern port of Guayaquil. Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa’s government released “wanted” posters with images of his face and offered US$1 million for information leading to his capture. In a country plagued by crime, members of Fito’s gang, Los Choneros, have responded with violence, using car
OVERHAUL: The move would likely mark the end to Voice of America, which was founded in 1942 to counter Nazi propaganda and operated in nearly 50 languages The parent agency of Voice of America (VOA) on Friday said it had issued termination notices to more than 639 more staff, completing an 85 percent decrease in personnel since March and effectively spelling the end of a broadcasting network founded to counter Nazi propaganda. US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) senior advisor Kari Lake said the staff reduction meant 1,400 positions had been eliminated as part of US President Donald Trump’s agenda to cut staffing at the agency to a statutory minimum. “Reduction in Force Termination Notices were sent to 639 employees at USAGM and Voice of America, part of a
Canada and the EU on Monday signed a defense and security pact as the transatlantic partners seek to better confront Russia, with worries over Washington’s reliability under US President Donald Trump. The deal was announced after a summit in Brussels between Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa. “While NATO remains the cornerstone of our collective defense, this partnership will allow us to strengthen our preparedness ... to invest more and to invest smarter,” Costa told a news conference. “It opens new opportunities for companies on both sides of the
The team behind the long-awaited Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile yesterday published their first images, revealing breathtaking views of star-forming regions as well as distant galaxies. More than two decades in the making, the giant US-funded telescope sits perched at the summit of Cerro Pachon in central Chile, where dark skies and dry air provide ideal conditions for observing the cosmos. One of the debut images is a composite of 678 exposures taken over just seven hours, capturing the Trifid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula — both several thousand light-years from Earth — glowing in vivid pinks against orange-red backdrops. The new image