British Prime Minister Tony Blair met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas yesterday to lend him support after a shaky truce between Abbas' Fatah forces and the Hamas government took effect in the Gaza Strip.
Fatah and Hamas accused each other of violating the ceasefire but said it was still in effect in the wake of days of heavy fighting that pushed Gaza to the brink of civil war. They said that some hostages held by both sides had been freed overnight.
Witnesses said Hamas had also withdrawn their police force from a number of streets.
Fighting escalated after Abbas called on Saturday for fresh presidential and parliamentary elections, a move intended to break political deadlock with Hamas and lift crippling Western sanctions on its administration.
Officials from Hamas and Fatah were expected to meet yesterday to try to cement the ceasefire. Previous deals to end internal fighting this year have quickly collapsed.
Blair, on a drive to revive Middle East peace negotiations, arrived in Israel just before Hamas and Fatah announced the deal on Sunday night.
He was meeting Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah and will hold talks later with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem. Blair has backed Abbas' call to hold early polls, saying the international community should support the president.
There was sporadic gunfire overnight in Gaza, including an incident in which two members of a Hamas-led police force were wounded just after the truce was announced. Residents denied reports of a dawn gunbattle around Abbas' home in Gaza.
Gunmen from Hamas and Fatah also faced off yesterday morning in a gunbattle in the middle of Gaza City, a battle that left a teenager wounded.
About 10 masked Hamas gunmen, with rifles, grenades and rocket launchers, took shelter behind walls in downtown Gaza as they fought a dozen other gunmen from Fatah, witnesses said.
The fighting, which came despite a truce agreement between the two sides, wounded a 16-year-old boy with a bullet in the neck.
"Calm is continuing despite the fact that there were some serious violations," said Abdel-Hakim Awad, a Fatah spokesman.
"Hamas will abide by the agreement ... The issue is also dependent on the commitment of the other side," said Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman.
Presidential guards were still maintaining tight security around Abbas' office, which came under mortar attack on Sunday. The president was not in Gaza at the time.
Abbas' guards were also still in charge of the Hamas-led agriculture and transport ministries, although they allowed several employees to enter.
Forces loyal to Hamas and Fatah fought street and rooftop gunbattles across Gaza on Sunday in which at least three people were killed and 20 wounded.
Hamas has said it would boycott new polls. The two factions tried for months to form a unity government to end their power struggle, but the talks foundered, partly over Hamas' insistence on not recognizing Israel.
The truce calls for the factions to withdraw their fighters, and for Abbas' forces to end their siege of the ministries.
Fatah said it did not call for a resumption of stalled unity government talks, as asserted by Hamas.
Abbas has said elections should be held as soon as possible. But he said efforts to form a unity government should go on.
The Palestinian basic law, which acts as a constitution, has no provision for early elections. Fatah says Abbas can call them through a presidential decree. Hamas says that would be illegal.
Hamas has insisted it will never recognize the Jewish state, making it unclear how any unity government could get off the ground and satisfy Western powers.
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