Rival security forces clash in Gaza after killings
Source: Reuters
(Adds clash in West Bank, paragraphs 12-15) By Nidal al-Mughrabi GAZA, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Palestinian security forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas traded gunfire with Hamas policemen in Gaza on Tuesday as tensions soared after the killing of three young sons of one of Abbas's top intelligence officials. Hospital officials said two members of Abbas's security forces had been wounded, one seriously. A spokesman for the governing Hamas Islamist movement's police force said two of their men had been wounded. One was in critical condition. Both sides accused the other of starting the gunfight in the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis. The Hamas spokesman said members of Abbas's forces had been protesting and attacking public buildings. Abbas earlier ordered his security forces to deploy across Gaza after the killing of the three boys, aged 6 to 9. Tension between the moderate Abbas and Hamas has mounted since unidentified gunmen shot dead the children of Colonel Baha Balousha as they arrived at school on Monday. It was the first time children have been targeted in such an attack. A senior official from Abbas's Fatah faction, Hussein al-Sheikh, said the Hamas government bore responsibility. "Of course people very close to Hamas, to say the least, are behind the killings. We hold the government and the interior minister directly responsible," Sheikh said. "These are mafias, killer gangs," he added, referring to the perpetrators of the drive-by shooting. Senior Hamas lawmaker Mushir al-Masri angrily denied the militant movement had anything to do with the attack. "It seems some Fatah leaders are exploiting the blood of innocent children to earn political gains," he said. Besides internal political unrest, Gaza is riven with clan fighting and a surge in crime following a Western aid embargo on the Hamas government that has deepened poverty. TENSIONS In the West Bank city of Ramallah late on Tuesday, a Hamas activist was wounded by gunmen from al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which are part of Fatah, a Hamas official said. The official said activists were trying to hang Hamas banners when they came under fire. The official accused the gunmen of abducting a Hamas member. Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades denied it had kidnapped anyone from Hamas. The militant group said it had fired at the activists after they tried to place banners and posters over pictures of former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who was also Fatah's head before his death in 2004. Political tension has been rising over the failure of Hamas and the formerly dominant Fatah to form a unity government that Palestinians hope might end the Western boycott. Abbas aides said he planned to call early elections on Saturday after talks on a unity government foundered. But they said he would still leave the door open to dialogue with Hamas. Scores of children on their way to school paid their respects at a mourning tent erected in Gaza City for the dead boys. They then set fire to tyres in the streets to protest the killings, sending clouds of black smoke into the air. The mother of the dead boys blamed both Hamas and Abbas. "I wish I died with them," said Linda Balousha, 30, struggling not to weep as she spoke to reporters. "What is the government doing? What is the president doing?" Interior Minister Saeed Seyam criticised Abbas, saying he had not coordinated Tuesday's deployment in Gaza with him. Seyam, a senior Hamas official, also dismissed accusations that he bore responsibility for the killings. Hamas has accused Abbas of trying to topple the government, which came to power after beating Fatah in elections in January. Unity talks broke down partly over Hamas's rejection of Western demands to recognise Israel. (Additional reporting by Wafa Amr and Mohammed Assadi in Ramallah)
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