Palestinian truce holds despite sporadic attacks
Source: Reuters
(Adds Fatah comment on attack) By Nidal al-Mughrabi GAZA, Jan 31 (Reuters) - A ceasefire between the governing Hamas movement and the once-dominant Fatah faction largely held in the Gaza Strip for a second day despite sporadic incidents of violence on Wednesday. Hamas said late on Wednesday that gunmen had fired at Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum in central Gaza but he had escaped unhurt from the "assassination attempt". It accused Fatah fighters of carrying out the attack. A Fatah official denied the accusation and said only Hamas gunmen were currently deployed on central Gaza's streets. The ceasefire went into effect on Tuesday after the deaths of at least 30 Palestinians in the fiercest internal Palestinian violence since Hamas, an Islamist group, defeated Fatah in an election a year ago. Hospital officials said earlier Bashir Issa, a member of Fatah's al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, was in critical condition after being shot by gunmen who opened fire from a car in Gaza City. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. Gunmen on a rooftop fired at the headquarters of the Preventive Security Service, most of whose members are loyal to Fatah. Residents said a four-minute clash ensued but no one was hurt. Shops and schools had shut down during five days of bloodshed that preceded the agreement by the feuding factions to pull back from what many Gazans described as a rush towards civil war. The violence had derailed unity government talks between Hamas and Fatah and prompted some families in the coastal strip to flee their homes. The truce was initially threatened when Hamas blamed the Preventive Security Service for the killing on Tuesday of one of its commanders, Hussein Shabasi. Hospital officials said Shabasi was shot in the head in the town of Khan Younis. The security service denied any connection with his death. In the West Bank city of Nablus, Israeli forces seized a wanted Islamic Jihad militant, the army said. The militant's wife was seriously wounded during the raid. The Israeli army has mounted several raids in the occupied West Bank since a Palestinian suicide bomber killed three people in the Israeli resort city of Eilat on Monday. The suicide bombing, claimed by Islamic Jihad and al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, was the first in Israel in nine months. A shaky truce between Israel and the Palestinians has been in place in the Gaza Strip since November but does not apply to the West Bank. (Additional reporting by Atef Sa'ad in Nablus and Jonathan Saul in Jerusalem)
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