Rival gunmen from Hamas and Fatah fought with assault rifles and missiles yesterday, killing three militants in the bloodiest internal fighting since Hamas took power six weeks ago.
The confrontations began after midnight with a spate of kidnappings and peaked at daybreak when Hamas fired a missile into a jeep with government license plates, killing two Fatah gunmen who were also members of the security forces.
The fighting was the latest sign the two sides could be sliding toward large-scale clashes. Each group has been training its gunmen for possible confrontation, and Hamas recently outbid Fatah in buying a black market shipment of 100,000 bullets.
Tensions have been rising since the Islamic militant Hamas ended Fatah's four-decade control of Palestinian politics with a victory in January parliament elections.
Hamas and moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah have been wrangling over power, particularly over control of the security forces, and the friction has been compounded by a growing financial crisis, a result of Western economic sanctions against the Hamas-led government.
Abbas and Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas failed to resolve their differences in weekend meetings.
The violence yesterday began before dawn in the farming community of Abassan in southeastern Gaza. Hamas tried to kidnap a Fatah member, apparently to settle an old score dating back to the January election, said Fatah spokesman Tawfiq Abu Khoussa.
The two sides exchanged fire, and a Hamas militant was seriously wounded, Abu Khoussa said.
The shooting prompted a series of kidnappings in which Hamas seized three Fatah members, and Fatah briefly captured four Hamas militants. The captives were eventually released after negotiations.
However, the Hamas member wounded in the initial firefight later died of his wounds, and his death triggered a new round of fighting with assault rifles and submachine guns.
Gunmen hiding in fields exchanged fire across Abassan's main road, sending people ducking for cover.
At one point, Hamas gunmen ambushed Fatah militants driving along the main road in two jeeps with red Palestinian Authority license plates. One jeep was hit by a shoulder-held missile and the second was riddled by bullets.
Ten gunmen were wounded, including one who was in serious condition.
Ghazi Hamad, a spokesman for the Hamas-led government, urged the two sides to resolve the dispute.
Abu Khoussa said he held Hamas responsible, accusing the group of inciting against Fatah.
Rival Palestinian groups have managed in the past to pull back from the brink of civil war. However, in the increasingly heated climate, it could be difficult to put a lid on fighting.
In other developments yesterday, Israel said it is in the process of mapping unauthorized construction in the West Bank, according to a court document. The Israeli government has stalled for three years on its promise to the US to take down wildcat settlement outposts.
Critics attacked the latest initiative as an Israeli delay tactic, noting that just a year ago, a government-commissioned report detailed 105 unauthorized outposts. Almost all of them remain intact, and other unauthorized structures have been erected in the West Bank since.
A deposition filed by the Israeli military with Israel's Supreme Court said the state would draw up a plan to dismantle the unauthorized construction it is mapping. Although it said the mapping would take four months, it gave no timetable for taking down the wildcat buildings.
In months, Lo Yuet-ping would bid farewell to a centuries-old village he has called home in Hong Kong for more than seven decades. The Cha Kwo Ling village in east Kowloon is filled with small houses built from metal sheets and stones, as well as old granite buildings, contrasting sharply with the high-rise structures that dominate much of the Asian financial hub. Lo, 72, has spent his entire life here and is among an estimated 860 households required to move under a government redevelopment plan. He said he would miss the rich history, unique culture and warm interpersonal kindness that defined life in
AERIAL INCURSIONS: The incidents are a reminder that Russia’s aggressive actions go beyond Ukraine’s borders, Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said Two NATO members on Sunday said that Russian drones violated their airspace, as one reportedly flew into Romania during nighttime attacks on neighboring Ukraine, while another crashed in eastern Latvia the previous day. A drone entered Romanian territory early on Sunday as Moscow struck “civilian targets and port infrastructure” across the Danube in Ukraine, the Romanian Ministry of National Defense said. It added that Bucharest had deployed F-16 warplanes to monitor its airspace and issued text alerts to residents of two eastern regions. It also said investigations were underway of a potential “impact zone” in an uninhabited area along the Romanian-Ukrainian border. There
The governor of Ohio is to send law enforcement and millions of dollars in healthcare resources to the city of Springfield as it faces a surge in temporary Haitian migrants. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine on Tuesday said that he does not oppose the Temporary Protected Status program under which about 15,000 Haitians have arrived in the city of about 59,000 people since 2020, but said the federal government must do more to help affected communities. On Monday, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost directed his office to research legal avenues — including filing a lawsuit — to stop the federal government from sending
Three sisters from Ohio who inherited a dime kept in a bank vault for more than 40 years knew it had some value, but they had no idea just how much until just a few years ago. The extraordinarily rare coin, struck by the US Mint in San Francisco in 1975, could bring more than US$500,000, said Ian Russell, president of GreatCollections, which specializes in currency and is handling an online auction that ends next month. What makes the dime depicting former US president Franklin D. Roosevelt so valuable is a missing “S” mint mark for San Francisco, one of just two
RSS