Supporters of the rival Fatah and Hamas groups exchanged gunfire and hurled firebombs at each other on Saturday after Hamas's political chief accused Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah of being a traitor.
Dozens of Palestinian protesters were wounded in the clashes, the worst between the groups in several months. Fighting began when student supporters of the factions hurled stones at one another outside Gaza universities and intensified when gunmen joined in.
Medics said 20 people were wounded. Police forces were unable to control the hours-long clashes, witnesses said.
Advertisement
Fatah's Revolutionary Council, its main decision making body, issued a statement late Friday condemning remarks made Hamas political leader Khaled Meshal on Friday, accusing him of "igniting and preparing for civil war."
Meshal spoke Friday from his base in Syria, without mentioning Abbas by name.
"We can understand that Israel and America are persecuting us, and seeking ways to besiege and starve us, but what about the sons of our people who are plotting against us, who are following a studied plan to make us fail. Today is not the time to expose them, but I say the day will come soon when we will reveal to all the truth," Meshal said.
Meshal lashed out at Abbas after he blocked Hamas plans to set up a shadow security force run by a radical militant figure wanted by Israel.
In response to Meshal's accusations, hundreds of university students hurled stones at each other over the wall separating Hamas- and Fatah-run schools. Gunmen rapidly joined the fight, trading fire and hurling explosives.
Cars parked between the universities were damaged, and the front windows of both institutions were shattered. Dozens of Palestinian police failed after several hours to bring the situation under control, and closed off streets in the surrounding area to try to contain the fighting.
The Fatah-backed university called off classes through Tuesday.
Thousands of Fatah supporters, including hundreds of gunmen firing automatic rifles in the air, marched through the streets of the Jabaliya refugee camp near Gaza City, denouncing Meshal as a "dirty animal" and waving yellow Fatah flags.
In Khan Yunis in southern Gaza, 6,000 Fatah protesters turned out.
Protests were more subdued in the West Bank, where thousands of Fatah loyalists gathered in major towns to skewer Meshal and express their support for Abbas.
In Nablus, about 15 Fatah-affiliated gunmen stormed a courthouse while firing in the air. They ejected dozens of employees, ordered guards to lock up the building, and vowed not to reopen it until Meshal apologized for his remarks.
In his statements, Meshal also reaffirmed Hamas' position on the Jewish state. "We will not recognize Israel," he said, cursing the country.
"Meshal is inciting a Palestinian civil war. He shouldn't interfere with what is going on in the Palestinian territories," Army Radio quoted a Fatah spokesperson as saying. "We are the ones who live here and are more aware of Palestinian interests. He should let us solve our problems here in the territories without interfering."
Senior Hamas officials also denounced Meshal's remarks. "Meshal's speech does not represent us," said deputy Palestinian prime minister Nasser Shaer. Shaer went on to tell Al-Jazeera that Meshal's statements reflected his own opinion, and not the government's.
Abbas' chief of staff, Rafiq Husseini left Ramallah on Saturday for an emergency meeting in the Gaza Strip with Cabinet secretary Mohammed Awad to try to bridge the rift between the PA chairman and Hamas officials.
Hamas said Friday night it would stand by its appointment of a leading radical high on Israel's most wanted list even after Abbas said he would cancel the posting.
On Thursday, the Hamas government appointed Jamal Abu Samhadana to supervise the Interior Ministry and set up a new police force from militants to crack down on anarchy and chaos. On Friday, Abbas rejected the appointment.
Speaking Saturday amid the sound of explosions from nearby clashes, Interior Minister and Hamas leader Sayeed Seyam defended the security appointments as "not usual", and said the team would work "within the existing security forces".
He also said aides of Abbas, who is abroad, and Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh had met to try to resolve the dispute.
Interior Ministry spokesman Khaled Abu Hilal said the new force would be controlled by the current security establishment, which Fatah loyalists have run since its formation in 1994.
Late on Friday, Hamas government spokesman Ghazi Hamad told a news conference in Gaza that Samhadana's appointment would stand.
The presidential decree sent to Haniyeh said Abbas had cancelled the appointment because it violated previous laws.
"All security leaders, officers and members of the security services are ordered not to deal with these decisions and regard them as if they never happened," the decree stated.
Samhadana: I won't give up the fight Samhadana, the leader of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), said Friday he would not abandon the fight against Israel.
He said his first order of business would be amalgamating militants in the security forces: "Factions and security services should unite in one trench against the daily Israeli aggression against our people."
"I will continue to hold the rifle and will pull the trigger whenever required to defend my people," he said.
Israel said Friday it will continue pursuing Samhadana regardless of the appointment.
"We will continue to pursue him," said a senior Israeli official who declined to be identified. "He is a terrorist and the fact that he has received a senior role in the Palestinian Authority does not make him immune."
Samhadana, 43, founded the PRC in the Gaza Strip, which has carried out bomb and rocket attacks against Israel since the intifada began in 2000. He is a former Fatah member who became a Hamas supporter during the course of the intifada, and survived an Israeli assassination attempt in 2004.
"He was on Israel's most-wanted list before and there hasn't been any change in what he's doing," another Israeli official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "Those who are involved in terrorist activity will not be exonerated."
The Palestinian interior and national security minister, Saeed Seyam of Hamas, announced Samhadana's appointment Thursday, along with the formation of a new armed "operational force" at his ministry that will constitute a police arm directly subordinate to him.
The announcement of the Hamas police force provides a counterweight to a series of moves by Abbas, who issued a presidential order appointing Rashid Abu Shbak, former chief of preventive security in the Strip, as head of "Internal Security" - a new entity that unites the interior ministry's security agencies, which are ostensibly controled by Hamas but also receive orders directly from Abbas.
Ex-Mossad chief: Hamas ministers are assassination targets Labor MK Danny Yatom, a former Mossad chief, said Friday that Israel should not let the government positions of Hamas leaders keep security forces from attempting to assassinate them.
"We also need to keep Hamas in our sights, not just the police chief," he told Army Radio. "Even Hamas government ministers are legitimate targets for assassination."
"Whoever is involved with terror must not be immune under any circumstances, whether or not he is the interior minister in the terrorist Hamas government," Yatom said.
The Bush administration denounced the Samhadana appointment, saying that it demonstrated "the true nature and the true tactics of this particular Hamas-led government.
Haaretz.com, the online edition of Haaretz Newspaper in Israel, offers real-time breaking news, opinions and analysis from Israel and the Middle East. Haaretz.com provides extensive and in-depth coverage of Israel, the Jewish World and the Middle East, including defense, diplomacy, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the peace process, Israeli politics, Jerusalem affairs, international relations, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the Israeli business world and Jewish life in Israel and the Diaspora.
