A fragile ceasefire aimed at halting deadly clashes between rival Palestinian factions held in Gaza for a second day on Thursday as President Mahmoud Abbas urged all sides to consolidate the truce.
No clashes between Abbas’s Fatah party and the ruling Hamas movement have been reported since early on Wednesday, when a four-hour gun battle in southern Gaza City killed two Fatah loyalists hours after a new truce went into effect.
Abbas urged the rival factions to respect the truce again on Thursday, following a similar call the night before.
”I call upon my people to show responsibility and work to consolidate the calm in the Gaza Strip,” he told a press conference in Ramallah. ”I’m convinced that everybody wants security and civil peace.”
Hundreds of people, waving the Palestinian standard, gathered in front of the Parliament building in Gaza to call on the rivals to respect the truce and restart talks on forming a coalition government.
”O Hamas, O Haniya, we want a government of national unity immediately,” they chanted. ”Enough with the battles, we want to live in security.”
Abbas reiterated that despite his call for early elections on Saturday — a move that was roundly rejected by Hamas and sparked four days of factional fighting that killed 13 people and wounded dozens — he was still open to forming a coalition government with Hamas.
But no preparations for a new round of dialogue has begun, Abbas’s spokesperson said.
”We are insisting on the need for dialogue, but no preparation is under way for a new round of dialogue,” Nabil Abu Rudeina said.
A Hamas spokesperson told that the ruling Islamists were also favourable to dialogue.
”The dialogue is the only way to solve our problems. There is certain confusion because of the incidents of late, but there is no alternative to dialogue to form a unity government,” Ghazi Hamad said.
Hamas said that Prime Minister Ismail Haniya was ready to meet with Abbas in Jordan, as suggested earlier in the week by King Abdullah II.
”We have not received an official invitation. If such an invitation is sent to us, we will accept,” he said.
The latest truce announced by Abbas and Haniya late on Tuesday — after a previous ceasefire between the factions held barely for 24 hours — came after the Palestinian president spoke by phone with Abdullah, who offered to host a meeting between the two rival leaders.
Abbas, who said he was prepared to ”respond favourably” to the invitation, was due to travel to Jordan on Sunday.
The deadly Palestinian clashes, which have raised fears of civil war, erupted after Abbas announced his intention to call early presidential and parliamentary elections as a way to resolve a months-long standoff with the ruling Islamists.
Talks between the two factions collapsed over Hamas’s refusal to bend to the West’s demands to recognise Israel, renounce violence and agree to past peace deals.
Haniya’s government has been boycotted by Israel and the West since it took office in March after a shock election win over Abbas’s long-dominant Fatah, plunging the Palestinian territories into their worst ever financial crisis. — Sapa-AFP