Hamas forces on Saturday battled Fatah gunmen with mortars and machine guns in a crowded Gaza City neighbourhood, leaving nine dead and 88 wounded in one of Gaza’s bloodiest rounds of internal fighting since Hamas seized the territory more than a year ago.
Twelve of the wounded were children, hospital officials said.
In the West Bank, controlled by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, troops enforced a new ban on public assembly and expanded their arrest sweep beyond Hamas. Club-wielding security men arrested dozens of supporters of a non-violent Islamic group, the Liberation Party, and broke up their rally in downtown Ramallah. An APTN cameraman was prevented by Abbas’s security forces from filming the beatings.
Each side has been cracking down on political opponents with growing intensity, since a car bomb in Gaza last week killed five Hamas activists, in an attack Hamas blamed on Fatah. Since then, the Islamic militant Hamas in Gaza and Abbas loyalists in the West Bank have carried out mass arrests.
Hamas on Saturday targeted the Fatah-linked Hilles clan, alleging that suspects in last week’s bombing had found refuge in a Hilles-controlled area in Gaza City’s Shijaiyeh neighbourhood. Under heavy morning fog, Hamas forces took up positions in the neighbourhoods.
Heavy battles with mortars and machine guns ensued, leaving three Hamas men and six Fatah backers dead, Health Ministry officials said.
Hospital officials said 88 people were hurt, including eight in critical condition. Twelve of the injured were children, the officials said. It was the deadliest internal fighting since November when Hamas police killed seven people in a Fatah-organised memorial rally for the late Yasser Arafat.
Explosions
Throughout the day on Saturday, loud explosions were heard across Gaza City.
By Saturday afternoon, Hamas had asserted control of Shijaiyeh, deploying hundreds of police who went house to house in search of weapons and suspects. In all, more than 50 people were arrested, including some who had tried to flee disguised as women, Hamas said.
Senior Hamas official Siyad Siam said those arrested included men allegedly involved in last week’s attack. Hamas forces found explosives of the type used in the bombing, as well as heavy machine guns and other weapons, Siam told a press conference in Gaza City late on Saturday.
”We are sending a message that no one is above the law and that no family is above the law,” Siam said. ”Gaza will enjoy peace and security.”
More than 180 Palestinians who fled the fighting were allowed through a Gaza crossing into Israel, said an Israeli commander in the border area, Colonel Ron Ashrov. The transfer began when a group including injured people and armed men ran up to the Gaza fence, Ashrov said.
When Israeli soldiers went to open the fence, heavy shooting was opened, including mortar shells, on them and the Palestinians, apparently by Hamas, Ashrov said. Twenty-two of those who crossed were injured, he said. Some of those who entered were youths, he said.
Israel’s rescue service said that three of the Palestinians were seriously injured and six lightly.
The unusual Israeli involvement to save Palestinians fleeing infighting was agreed to by Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak after Abbas and the Egyptian government requested the Israeli action, military officials said on condition of anonymity since no official announcement was made about the request.
Officials close to Abbas said Israel had agreed to allow only three of those who had fled to enter the West Bank, and the rest would be sent to Egypt.
A clan leader and senior Fatah member, Ahmed Hilles, was among those who had reached Israel, according to a Palestinian official close to the events who spoke on condition of anonymity. The Israeli military officials confirmed that.
Four mortar shells fired from Gaza landed in open fields in Israel on Saturday causing no injuries, the army said. The mortars underscored the danger that the Palestinian infighting could embroil Israel.
Fighting back
Earlier, while still pinned down by the fighting, Hilles had tried to explain why the clan fought back. ”You have to decide: either be trampled under Hamas’s shoes or stand in dignity,” he said by phone, with gunshots crackling in the background.
In the West Bank, Abbas’s forces widened their sweep to include members of the Liberation Party, a pan-Islamic movement that has sharply criticised the moderate West Bank leadership but says it espouses non-violent change. In the past, members of the movement were able to march in the West Bank without hindrance.
One senior security official said there is growing fear Hamas is using the Liberation Party as a front in the West Bank. The Liberation Party said on Saturday that dozens of its members have been arrested in recent days and more were detained as police broke up a rally on Saturday in Ramallah.
Deeb al-Ali, chief of the national security forces in the West Bank, said all political gatherings are banned because of the growing tensions with Hamas. Abbas’s troops put on a show of force in Ramallah, marching in formation through the centre.
Amir Qimari (25), a food company employee, said the military display proved that the Western-backed Abbas was not democratic. ”What they say Hamas is doing in Gaza they are doing here,” he said.
In other developments, five Palestinians were killed and 18 wounded in a smuggling tunnel under the Gaza-Egypt border after Egyptian troops blew up the entrance on Friday, suffocating those inside, said an Egyptian official, who is stationed at the border and spoke on customary condition of anonymity.
Networks of tunnels runs under the Gaza-Egypt border and are used to bring supplies into Gaza. The territory has been virtually cut off from the world since June 2007 when Hamas seized control. Both Israel and Egypt have enforced the closure of Gaza.
Israel says Gaza’s Hamas rulers use the tunnel to bring in weapons and cash. In recent months, Egypt has begun cracking down on the smugglers.
In the past week, Egypt has destroyed 14 tunnels, the Egyptian official said. Since the beginning of the year, 27 Palestinians have been killed in tunnels, including the five killed late on Friday. — Sapa-AP