Last update - 00:00 24/07/2007
Dozens of students hurt in Hamas-Fatah brawl at West Bank college
By The Associated Press
Dozens of Palestinian students were wounded after a mass brawl between Hamas and Fatah supporters at university campus Tuesday, in the biggest clash between the rival groups in the West Bank since the fall of Gaza to Hamas last month.
The clash erupted at An Najah University, the West Bank's largest, in the city of Nablus.
Palestinian security forces trying to break up the fistfight opened fire on the crowd. Three people were wounded by gunfire, including one who was shot in the head and was in critical condition, doctors said. Others suffered beating injuries.
The university's administration announced its closing of the institution's gates, and ordered all students to leave in order to prevent further violence. It blamed an Islamic group affiliated with Hamas for starting the scuffle after it violated university rules against political activities within its grounds.
Three people were wounded by live fire, including one who was shot in the head and was in critical condition, doctors said. Others suffered beating injuries.
The clash began when Hamas supporters staged a sit-in on campus and raised their movement's green flags. Fatah activists demanded that the Hamas flags be removed, and a fistfight erupted.
Witnesses said students also threw chairs at each other. At some point, dozens of Palestinian security officers broke into the university and opened fire, the witnesses said. They were joined by about two dozen gunmen from the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a violent offshoot of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah group.
Abbas had ordered a crackdown on Hamas after the Islamic militant group's violent takeover of Gaza last month, and his security forces have arrested dozens of Hamas activists since then.