A Fatah-linked militia circulated leaflets yesterday threatening to kill top leaders of the rival Hamas Party as violence between the sides escalated in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, the Fatah militant group, confirmed the authenticity of the statement, which threatened to execute Interior Minister Said Siyam of Hamas, the group's Syria-based political leader, Khaled Mashaal, and Youssef Zahar, head of the Hamas militia.
Gunmen allied with Fatah forced the closure of several schools throughout central Gaza yesterday, telling children and teachers to leave and saying the education process must be stopped.
PHOTO: AFP
They did not explain why they closed the schools.
Fatah gunmen also blocked a major intersection in central Gaza yesterday, shouting "Down, down with Hamas," burning tires and dumpsters and shooting in the air.
Violence erupted between the sides on Sunday, when the 3,500-strong Hamas militia confronted members of the Fatah-dominated security forces, who were protesting the government's inability to pay their wages.
Fatah militants responded by torching the Cabinet building in Ramallah and trashing Hamas offices throughout the West Bank. A string of running street battles killed eight people and wounded 100 others on Sunday.
To reduce friction, Hamas pulled its militias out of Gaza's main streets on Monday and redeployed them in their normal positions.
Hamas, which ousted Fatah in January parliamentary elections, formed the militia in April after losing a power struggle for control of the security forces with President Mahmoud Abbas, a Fatah leader elected separately last year.
But late on Monday, gun battles erupted again in the Gaza town of Rafah between Fatah gunmen and Hamas militiamen. Two people were killed and 14 others were wounded in the latest explosion of internal violence.
Fatah, in a show of strength against Hamas, has been enforcing a general strike in West Bank towns, while the Hamas-led government has ordered all ministries closed to protest attacks on government buildings.
Ghazi Hamad, a spokesman for the Hamas government, said yesterday the only solution to the current round of violence is the establishment of a unity government with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah Party. He condemned the strikes as violent and said they only fanned the tensions between the sides.
"I know there is suffering and there is a big problem," Hamad told Israel Radio in Hebrew.
"When there is a strike you don't go to work but you don't cause problems and riots all the time. This is not acceptable to us."
But the pleas for calm appear to be unheard for the time being and the violence has further dampened hopes of a unity government.
Fatah gunmen and Palestinians loyal to the Abbas' more moderate party are furious that Hamas has refused to moderate its positions in accordance with international demands, a move that would lead the international community to lift debilitating economic sanctions.
The so-called Quartet of Middle East mediators, led by the US, has demanded Hamas renounce violence, recognize Israel and accept past peace agreements as a condition for sanctions to be lifted.
The Islamic group has so far refused to meet the demands even though the sanctions have made it impossible for the government to pay salaries to employees, plunging thousands of people into poverty and increasing unemployment in the cash-strapped West Bank and Gaza Strip.
In the Gaza town of Rafah late on Monday, Fatah gunmen marched through the streets after evening prayers in protest at the Hamas-led government and its militia, witnesses said. When they approached a militia post, a gun battle broke out and five people were wounded, one seriously, they said.
The fighting ended after local Hamas and Fatah officials called on their supporters to back down.
But minutes later, a new battle erupted in a Fatah stronghold across town that killed one bystander and another unidentified person and left nine other people with bullet and shrapnel wounds.
Fatah officials said Hamas militiamen opened fire on Fatah supporters as they neared a roadblock.
Hamas said its militia came under fire from the car and fought back.
An earlier gun battle erupted at the main hospital in Gaza City on Monday morning when relatives of one of Sunday's victims arrived to retrieve his body. Fatah gunmen with them opened fire on Hamas militiamen patrolling the hospital.
Patients and doctors ran for cover, but no one was hurt, hospital officials said.
In the northern West Bank city of Nablus, Fatah militants shot at the bodyguards of Hamas Deputy Prime Minister Nasser Shaer as they rode in a government car, injuring two of them. Shaer was not present during the attack.
Hospital officials said a Fatah militant was also injured.
In Jericho, a Fatah gunman trying to enforce the strike shot a shop owner in the head, seriously wounding him, Fatah officials said. The wounded man was also a Fatah member, the officials said.
Violence between Fatah and Hamas loyalists plagued Gaza in the spring, but largely ended when Israel attacked on June 28.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday vowed that those behind bogus flood control projects would be arrested before Christmas, days after deadly back-to-back typhoons left swathes of the country underwater. Scores of construction firm owners, government officials and lawmakers — including Marcos’ cousin congressman — have been accused of pocketing funds for substandard or so-called “ghost” infrastructure projects. The Philippine Department of Finance has estimated the nation’s economy lost up to 118.5 billion pesos (US$2 billion) since 2023 due to corruption in flood control projects. Criminal cases against most of the people implicated are nearly complete, Marcos told reporters. “We don’t file cases for
Ecuadorans are today to vote on whether to allow the return of foreign military bases and the drafting of a new constitution that could give the country’s president more power. Voters are to decide on the presence of foreign military bases, which have been banned on Ecuadoran soil since 2008. A “yes” vote would likely bring the return of the US military to the Manta air base on the Pacific coast — once a hub for US anti-drug operations. Other questions concern ending public funding for political parties, reducing the number of lawmakers and creating an elected body that would
‘ATTACK ON CIVILIZATION’: The culture ministry released drawings of six missing statues representing the Roman goddess of Venus, the tallest of which was 40cm Investigators believe that the theft of several ancient statues dating back to the Roman era from Syria’s national museum was likely the work of an individual, not an organized gang, officials said on Wednesday. The National Museum of Damascus was closed after the heist was discovered early on Monday. The museum had reopened in January as the country recovers from a 14-year civil war and the fall of the 54-year al-Assad dynasty last year. On Wednesday, a security vehicle was parked outside the main gate of the museum in central Damascus while security guards stood nearby. People were not allowed in because
A feud has broken out between the top leaders of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party on whether to maintain close ties with Russia. The AfD leader Alice Weidel this week slammed planned visits to Russia by some party lawmakers, while coleader Tino Chrupalla voiced a defense of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The unusual split comes at a time when mainstream politicians have accused the anti-immigration AfD of acting as stooges for the Kremlin and even spying for Russia. The row has also erupted in a year in which the AfD is flying high, often polling above the record 20 percent it
RSS