The militant Hamas group and the rival Fatah Party agreed yesterday to work to end tensions between their competing branches of the Palestinian government that exploded into violent clashes and protests throughout Palestinian towns in recent days.
But friction threatened to boil over again with neither the Hamas-controlled Cabinet nor Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' more moderate Fatah faction backing down from their conflicting demands in a fierce struggle for control of the security forces.
Supporters of the two sides traded gunfire and hurled stones and firebombs on Saturday, and Fatah leaders warned the violence could deteriorate into civil war.
PHOTO: EPA
In a meeting that began late on Saturday and spilled over into yesterday, Hamas and Fatah officials said they would take steps to end the fighting.
"The two movements have agreed to call on our Palestinian masses to stop all displays that might lead to tension," Fatah official Maher Mekdad said, reading a joint statement. "They agreed to work together to strengthen national unity."
But no agreement was reached on control of the security forces, participants said.
Outside the meeting, which was mediated by Egyptian security officials, thousands of Fatah supporters shouted anti-Hamas slogans.
Abbas, whose Fatah Party lost January parliamentary elections, has been trying to shore up his already considerable powers to marginalize the rival Hamas group, which calls for the destruction of Israel and is listed as a terror organization by the US and the EU.
After the Hamas Cabinet took office last month, many Western nations froze desperately needed aid to the Palestinian government, causing a financial crisis. The government is nearly three weeks late in paying last month's salaries to its 165,000 employees and Hamas officials say they do not know when they will have the needed money.
The government was further isolated after Hamas officials defended an Islamic Jihad suicide bombing in Tel Aviv on April 17 that killed eight Israelis.
Israeli interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the attack completed "the transformation of the Palestinian Authority to a terrorist authority."
"The international community will now understand that we don't have a partner," he told his weekly Cabinet meeting Sunday, according to participants.
The weekend unrest followed Abbas' efforts to take control of all the Palestinian security forces -- including those traditionally under the Interior Ministry -- and Hamas' response that it would form its own shadow army, made up of militants and headed by a top fugitive that Israel has been hunting for years.
Abbas promptly vetoed that plan, and Hamas' political chief, Khaled Mashaal, accused him of cooperating with Israel and the US and "plotting against us."
Fatah leaders shot back that Mashaal, who spoke from his base in Syria, was trying to ignite a civil war.
Tens of thousands of Fatah loyalists on Saturday took to the streets of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, demanding that Mashaal issue an apology.
More than 4,000 people -- Palestinian security officers and Fatah supporters -- marched in the West Bank town of Jenin yesterday, chanting anti-Mashaal slogans. Dozens of security officers and others fired weapons into the air.
Mashaal said his comments were misinterpreted.
Abbas has powers that "we highly respect and appreciate," Mashaal said on Saturday. "The remedy is through dialogue, understanding and recourse to law, not to weapons."
Clashes were ugliest in Gaza City, where Hamas and Fatah followers traded gunfire and hurled grenades and firebombs on Saturday. Fifteen people were wounded. Later, hundreds of Fatah activists marched to Gaza's parliament compound, throwing stones and shattering windows.
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