WORLD / Middle East

New shooting ends Gaza cease-fire

(AP)
Updated: 2006-12-18 13:45

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Palestinian gunmen waged a street battle outside
the residence of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas around dawn Monday,
dashing hopes that an overnight truce would bring quiet to the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian gunmen from the Fatah Movement carry their weapons as they
march in support of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the Jebaliya
refugee camp, northern Gaza Strip, Sunday, Dec. 17, 2006. [AP]

The rival factions Hamas and Fatah are fighting for control over the
Palestinian government, and the volatile coastal territory was buffeted
by violence all day Sunday. Three people were killed in Sunday's
fighting, in which gunmen shot up the Palestinian foreign minister's
convoy and militants launched mortar shells at Abbas' office.

Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh has accused Abbas of inflaming the
political crisis by calling for early elections and said his Hamas group
would boycott the poll. Abbas, a moderate from Fatah, called for new
elections to resolve the political deadlock that has paralyzed the
Palestinian government since the hardline Hamas militants won January
parliamentary elections.

Hamas' electoral victory split the Palestinian government, with Abbas
seeking peace with Israel and Hamas refusing to even recognize the Jewish
state's existence. The political tensions have repeatedly turned violent
and the chaos has spiraled out of control since unknown gunmen killed the
three young sons of a Fatah-allied security chief last week.

Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar's motorcade came under fire Sunday as it
drove near the Foreign Ministry in Gaza City. Zahar was unharmed, but the
attack unleashed a ferocious gunbattle that raged for more than an hour,
the worst fighting since unity government talks broke down late last
month. Medical officials said a 19-year-old woman was killed in the
crossfire.

Zahar said top Fatah leaders were "fully responsible" for the attack on
him "and what will happen."

In a separate attack blamed on Hamas, dozens of gunmen raided a training
camp of Abbas' Presidential Guard near the president's residence, killing
a member of the elite force.

Hamas gunmen also opened fire at a demonstration of tens of thousands of
Fatah supporters in northern Gaza, wounding at least one person, and
unknown militants fired at least two mortars at Abbas' office in Gaza
City. Hours later, they launched another mortar shell.

Five pro-Fatah security men and a 45-year-old woman were wounded,
officials said. Abbas was in the West Bank at the time.

Elsewhere, the bullet-riddled body of a top security officer affiliated
with Fatah, Col. Adnan Rahmi, was discovered in northern Gaza several
hours after he disappeared, Palestinian medical officials and his family
said. No group took responsibility, but Rahmi's family blamed Hamas for
the killing.

The violence persisted throughout the night, with Hamas and Fatah gunmen
waging battles in the northern Gaza town of Jebaliya, near the home of a
Fatah strongman in Gaza, and outside the Gaza parliament building. Hamas
militants also clashed with Abbas' bodyguard unit outside his Gaza home.

A French reporter, 46-year-old Didier Francois of the newspaper
Liberation, was shot in the leg during the day's violence, according to
his newspaper.

Egyptian mediators and small Palestinian factions worked all day to
broker an agreement between the two sides, and a truce was announced at a
press conference in Gaza City after midnight.

But representatives of Fatah and Hamas did not appear at the press
conference, leaving the announcement to Rabbah Muhanna, a senior official
in the small Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. "Both sides
are serious about the agreement," Muhanna assured reporters.

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