Another two Palestinians died on Saturday in clashes between rival factions in Gaza, bringing to 17 the death toll in three days of bitter fighting that has torpedoed talks on forming a unity government.
Rival supporters of the ruling Hamas movement and the Fatah faction loyal to Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas have fought running gun battles and fired off volleys of mortars and grenades in the densely populated streets of Gaza City since Thursday night, medics and witnesses said.
The fiercest fighting since the Islamist Hamas won parliamentary elections one year ago has also left about 50 people injured, according to medical officials.
Amid the mounting casualties, the ruling Islamists suspended long-running talks with Fatah on Friday night on forming a national-unity government acceptable to Western donors.
Hamas accused the president’s party of provoking the latest fighting.
“The unity government talks were on the verge of full agreement and the announcement of a unity government when putschists inside Fatah … rushed to blow up the situation to serve their own interests and a foreign agenda,” it said.
The accusations flew both ways.
“It’s clear that Hamas doesn’t want the dialogue to succeed. The escalation began with Hamas,” said Fatah spokesperson Tawfiq Abu Khussa.
Saturday’s flare-up saw Mahmoud Khalil Khatib (17), who appears to have been an innocent bystander, and Mohammad Khattab, an officer in the national security force, killed in early morning fire fights in central Gaza City, medical sources said.
Hamas had earlier launched rocket-propelled grenades at the headquarters of the Fatah-dominated Preventive Security force and lobbed mortars at the home of Rashid Abu Shabak, the Gaza security chief loyal to Abbas.
Grenades late on Friday hit the home of Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmud al-Zahar, a Hamas leader.
The streets of Gaza City were deserted on Saturday as storekeepers shuttered up their shops and residents stayed in the relative safety of their homes.
The quiet was punctuated by occasional bursts of machine gun fire.
Among the victims were a two-year-old child who was caught in the crossfire of a fire fight in the south Gaza town of Khan Yunis and a 16-year-old boy killed in Jabaliya, according to medics.
In the West Bank, Palestinian police swinging batons and firing into the air, clashed with about 200 Hamas supporters who rallied to denounce Friday’s shooting of a Hamas member in Tulkarem.
Hamas has called for Abbas, who is in Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum, to return immediately to the Palestinian territories to help put an end to the mounting bloodshed. — AFP