Eight Palestinians were killed and dozens injured on Sunday in an increasingly violent struggle for power between rival factions in the Gaza Strip.
Hours after the clashes, gunmen loyal to the Fatah movement set fire to rooms in the Palestinian Cabinet building in the West Bank town of Ramallah. It was the most serious outbreak of fighting in the Palestinian territories for some months, and a sign of rising tensions between the Hamas-led government and the more secular Fatah, which lost power in elections at the start of the year.
Among the dead was a boy aged 15. More than 50 people were injured, including three children and a television cameraman. The fighting broke out during a protest in Gaza City led by government employees and security officials, none of whom had received salaries since the government was formed in March.
Most of the security employees were Fatah members, and the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, who leads the movement, had told them not to go out on the demonstration. Abbas said on Sunday night that the ”bloody confrontations” were unacceptable and he promised to prosecute those involved in the violence.
On Saturday, Hamas began deploying its own, rival militia — the well-armed Executive Force, who dress in camouflage trousers and black shirts — and on Sunday they moved in to break up the protests. Gunmen from both sides then began trading fire with rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. Cars were set alight and plumes of thick, black smoke rose over the city.
Later, in apparent retaliation for the shootings, a crowd of Fatah supporters marched through Ramallah and attacked the Cabinet building, setting fire to several rooms. Smoke poured from the windows.
A Fatah spokesperson, Tawfik Abu Khoussa, blamed the Hamas government. ”Nothing can justify this violence,” he said. Ghazi Hamad, the main Hamas spokesperson, blamed the protesters, accusing them of being driven more by political than economic motives. ”The protest today was beyond acceptable legal norms and turned truly into lawlessness,” he said.
Even before Sunday’s clashes, there had been attacks between the factions, symptomatic of a broader struggle for power and heightening fears of a slide into civil war. Ten days ago, gunmen in Gaza shot dead Jad Tayah, a senior Fatah intelligence official, and five of his colleagues. Several people pointed the finger of blame at Hamas. A few days earlier, gunmen hijacked a car belonging to Nabil Shaath, a senior Palestinian politician and close adviser to Abbas. Security is now becoming a more immediate concern than the economic crisis.
As soon as Hamas came to power, the international community froze its aid payments to the Palestinian government and Israel suspended its customs transfers, which together amount to hundreds of millions of dollars a year. Both insisted that the hardline Islamist movement publicly recognise the state of Israel, renounce violence and sign up to past agreements between the Palestinians and Israel.
Hamas has not agreed, and efforts to form a coalition government with Fatah that might go some way towards meeting those demands have fallen through in recent days. With the salaries of 160 000 government employees unpaid, the economic situation in the territories has worsened severely, particularly in Gaza, where Israeli closures of crossing points have severely hit farmers and businessmen.
Sunday’s violence suggests that a coalition government — which at one point was almost agreed — may now be beyond reach.
In addition to the internal Palestinian rivalry, there has been a series of Israeli military operations in Gaza since the capture in June of a soldier, Corporal Gilad Shalit, by Palestinian militants. Israel says it is acting to get its soldier back and halt the firing of crude Qassam rockets into nearby Israeli towns, such as Sderot. More than 200 Palestinians have died in the operations, most of them civilians.
On Sunday, Israel’s chief of staff said a much larger military operation in Gaza was being considered. ”We will have to find a military means to reduce the rocket fire on Sderot,” Major-General Dan Halutz told Israel Radio. ”For example, a more continued and deeper ground action … We are holding consultations about this.” – Guardian Unlimited Â