Six killed in Gaza as Hamas marks victory

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Six killed in Gaza as Hamas marks victory

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA (Reuters) - Rival Palestinian factions clashed across the Gaza Strip, killing six people, as thousands of Hamas supporters marched on Friday to mark the Islamist group's election victory over Fatah opponents last year.

The escalating violence forced the postponement of talks to form a coalition government which could ease a U.S.-led boycott imposed after Hamas won Palestinian elections last January.

"The entire dialogue could explode," Fatah spokesman Tawfiq Abu Khoussa said, blaming Hamas for the tension. "How can dialogue go on when there is a bomb underneath the table?"

The talks, due to resume on Friday, were pushed back to Sunday.

Three Hamas supporters, a militant from the Fatah-linked Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and two bystanders were killed in violence which began with a bombing on Thursday night and continued with a spate of shootings on Friday.

In Jabalya in the northern Gaza Strip, Hamas gunmen besieged the house of a senior Fatah activist they blamed for shooting a Hamas supporter earlier on Friday.

Militants from Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in the West Bank city of Nablus said they seized a number of Hamas supporters and threatened to kill them if the Hamas gunmen in Gaza did not lift their siege. A Fatah source said the group was also threatening action against nine Hamas detainees in Gaza.

Local residents said women and civilians were trying to break the siege of Mansour Shalayel's house, throwing stones against the Hamas forces who responded with stun grenades.

More than 30 Palestinians have been killed in fighting between rival groups since President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah called last month for presidential and parliamentary elections after a previous round of unity talks broke down.

Hamas has said any snap poll would amount to a coup.

HAMAS ANNIVERSARY

Abbas and Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal pledged on Sunday to curb Palestinian bloodshed after inconclusive talks to form a unity government aimed at lifting the boycott imposed because of Hamas' refusal to recognise Israel, renounce violence and abide by interim peace deals.

Hamas, which has struggled to govern since taking office in March under the weight of the sanctions, was holding a rally in Gaza to mark a year since its January 25, 2006, victory over Fatah.

"I can say that the parties which imposed the siege throughout the past year were unable to achieve their goals," Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, a leading Hamas figure, told reporters after Friday prayers at a Gaza mosque.

Senior Hamas lawmaker Mushir al-Masri, speaking at the rally in Jabalya, said Hamas would stand firm against all opponents.

"I tell the Zionists, the Americans and leaders of the coup: Save yourselves, save your time and your effort because we are staying in our positions, in the government and the parliament, like the mountains of Palestine are staying in their place."

Hamas leaders have offered a long-term truce with Israel in return for a viable Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, although the Islamist group's charter calls for the destruction of the Jewish state. Hamas continues to say that it will not formally recognise Israel.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Abbas said it should take no more than three weeks to reach agreement with Hamas on the unity government, but reiterated he would call for elections if the talks fail.

(Additional reporting by Mohammed Assadi in Ramallah)

http://news(dot)scotsman(dot)com/latest.cfm?id=138862007

How convenient for the Zionists that sectarian violence flares up just as the Palestinian groups were supposed to hold talks!

 

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Hamas suspends talks with Fatah

* by Adel Zaanoun in Gaza City
* January 27, 2007

HAMAS, which heads the Palestinian government, has suspended talks overnight with Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party after clashes between the two left 11 people dead in barely 24 hours.

"Hamas has decided to freeze national dialogue with Fatah to condemn the deadly clashes and the crimes committed against its members," spokesman Ismail Radwan said, a year to the day after Hamas won a resounding election victory.

Fatah was swift to react. "This announcement does not surprise us. Hamas does not want a government of national unity. It's not possible to have a dialogue with killers," said Maher Maqdad, the Fatah spokesman in Gaza.

A loyalist from Fatah, four Hamas members, a teenager, a toddler and two others were killed in the volatile coastal strip yesterday. A further two Hamas supporters died of wounds received in an attack on Thursday night, medics said.

An anti-tank rocket was fired yesterday at the house in Gaza of Palestinian Hamas foreign minister Mahmoud Zahar. Zahar was not at home and no one was hurt but the house was damaged, said a source in an interior ministry force loyal to Hamas.

Fatah and Hamas had on Tuesday begun a new round of negotiations on forming a unity government acceptable to Western donors, just two days after Abbas held talks in Syria with exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal.

Tensions had flared between the rival factions after Abbas, the head of the Palestinian Authority, had called on December 16, 2006, for early elections.

Hamas, which won a resounding election victory exactly one year ago and has struggled to govern since then in the face of international isolation, denounced the call as a "coup d'etat".

Subsequent clashes between Fatah and Hamas supporters killed more than 30 people between mid-December and early January.

But the two-week lull that followed revived hopes of a deal to form a unity government that could overcome the political and financial impasse that has paralysed the Palestinian Authority for months.

In addition to the deaths overnight, nine members of Hamas and five members of Fatah were kidnapped in tit-for-tat abductions in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, and nine Hamas members were kidnapped in the northern village of Kafr Qalil by Fatah, security sources said.

The European Union, the United States and Israel consider Hamas a "terrorist" organisation. They are demanding that the Islamists renounce violence and recognise Israel and past peace deals before they resume the aid flow. But Hamas has steadfastly refused to do so.

http://www(dot)theaustralian(dot)news.com.au/story/0,20867,21126181-1702,00.html

This smells rotten. Could all this renewed violence have to do with the shipment of weapons funded by the U.S. that was given to Fatah not too long ago? Could Israeli dress-up terrorists be shooting these random anti-tank missiles and responsible for at least some of these killings so as to contribute to the suspicions from both sides?

With Fatah and Hamas being so close to finally talking again, this secterian violence just doesn't make any sense. The Palestinians themselves have nothing to gain from this.

So, once again, we ask the question: WHO BENEFITS? Of course, the Zionists do.