Gaza City sees two days of Fateh - Hamas fighting, 19 people killed
27.01.07 - 04:17
Aziz Al Khatib was killed near the Islamic University in Gaza City Saturday morning, and after him another Hamas member and a man from the Palestinian National Security.
The death toll has reached 19 in 48 hours. Clashes between Executive Forces and the security services have been heaviest in the Shajaiyeh neighborhood, near the Al Azhar and Islamic universities, in Tel Al Howa, and around Shifa Hospital.
The fighting has imposed a virtual curfew on the people who cannot go most places for fear of being caught in the cross fire. Students did not go to school today in protest or for fear the buildings might become the targets of the bullets echoing the city of Gaza. Businesses have also shut their doors and a state of discontent prevails among the public.
Hamas announced earlier that it was suspending the national dialogue on forming a unity government due to the happenings on the ground. Spokesperson Ayman Taha said, “The programmed escalation aims to foment a civil war and to drag Hamas into a devastating, bloody and comprehensive battle.”
During a press conference this afternoon Taha stressed that Hamas would not allow the “coup gangs” to drag the movement into a civil war that “serves the Zionist – American interests,” to implement the “schemes of Rice and Livne called for in Davos today due to the lack of agreement on a unity government.”
Fateh issued a statement Saturday morning stressing the need to preserve the national unity of the Palestinian people. The movement said it took the threat of the “bloody offender in the Hamas movement” seriously, accusing Hamas of incitement and of not possessing the ability to “discriminate between blood.”
Fateh wrote of the right to self-defense and said it would inform the public of the truth, while “killing innocent people and stealing their money and property is an ingredient of war as what happened in the house of martyr Mohammad Abu Ghraib (Abu Majd).”
None of the attempts at stopping the fighting have worked thus far and fears are growing that it will spread.
Aziz Al Khatib was killed near the Islamic University in Gaza City Saturday morning, and after him another Hamas member and a man from the Palestinian National Security.
