Hamas, Fatah gunmen battle over election results
GAZA, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Hamas and Fatah gunmen exchanged fire in the Gaza Strip on Friday, fuelling fears of Palestinian turmoil following the Islamic militant group's crushing victory over the long-dominant faction in a parliamentary election.
Three people were wounded in the gun battle near the southern city of Khan Younis, the first between the rival movements since Wednesday's vote, witnesses said.
The violence erupted, they said, after Hamas militants were angered by a sermon by a Fatah-appointed Muslim preacher during Friday prayers.
In an apparent bid to heal rifts after its shock victory, Hamas said it hoped to form a Palestinian unity government and would hold talks soon with President Mahmoud Abbas on a "political partnership".
With Middle East peace diplomacy in limbo, Israel ruled out negotiations, frozen since 2000, with any Palestinian administration involving Hamas. The group is sworn to Israel's destruction and has been behind dozens of suicide bombings.
"Hamas will have a clear vision for a government of unity -- one in which everyone joins," Moussa Abu Marzouk, a senior Hamas official, said in Damascus, calling on Abbas's Fatah to participate.
Fatah leaders, speaking after the party's crushing defeat in a parliamentary election on Wednesday, said they wanted no part in such a coalition.
In Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, who headed Hamas's list of candidates, said he had telephoned Abbas and they had agreed to meet when the president visits the city in about two days.
"We will talk about several issues including the shape of the political partnership in the coming stage," Haniyeh told Reuters.
Speaking later in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Abbas made no reference to a meeting with Haniyeh.
"We are consulting and in contact with all the Palestinian groups and definitely, at the appropriate time, the biggest party will form the cabinet," Abbas said, a reference to Hamas.
VOTER DISENCHANTMENT
Hamas's capture of 76 seats in the 132-member parliament against 43 for Fatah was widely seen as a political earthquake in the Middle East, triggered by voter disenchantment with corruption and the failure of peace efforts.
"The people have punished Fatah for its mistakes and for internal divisions," said Nabil Shaath, a senior Fatah official and a former cabinet minister.
At a news conference in Washington on Thursday, U.S. President George W. Bush said "a political party that articulates the destruction of Israel as part of a platform is a party with which we will not deal".
Hamas has mostly respected a truce for nearly a year, but says it will not give up its guns or its charter demand for an Islamic state to encompass Israel, the West Bank and Gaza.
Bush, who saw the late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat as an obstacle to peace and adopted a largely hands-off approach to the Middle East, stepped up involvement in brokering accords between the two sides after Abbas became president last year.
Israeli interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said a government involving Hamas could not be a partner for peace. Israel also refused to negotiate with the previous government, saying it had failed to combat militant groups like Hamas.
But an opinion poll in Israel's Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper showed 48 percent of Israelis favoured talking to a Hamas-led Palestinian government, while 43 percent were opposed.
Olmert has hinted at unilateral moves to set a border with the Palestinians on Israeli terms. Israel has already pulled its settlers out of the Gaza Strip without negotiations.
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Israel threw into doubt its willingness to continue the transfer of customs revenue to an aid-dependent Palestinian Authority.
"We will face practical problems of how you deal with people that call for the destruction of Israel," said Joseph Bachar, director general of the Israeli Finance Ministry.
Palestinian Economy Minister Mazen Sinokrot, sitting on the same panel as Bachar, said the Israeli transfers amounted to monthly revenues exceeding $40 million to $50 million, money needed to help pay salaries for 135,000 government employees.
(Additional reporting by Saul Hudson, Sue Pleming and Carol Giacomo in Washington, Corinne Heller and Ori Lewis in Jerusalem, Wafa Amr and Mohammed Assadi in Ramallah and Mark Trevelyan and Josiane Kremer in Davos)
Three people were wounded in the gun battle near the southern city of Khan Younis, the first between the rival movements since Wednesday's vote, witnesses said.
The violence erupted, they said, after Hamas militants were angered by a sermon by a Fatah-appointed Muslim preacher during Friday prayers.
In an apparent bid to heal rifts after its shock victory, Hamas said it hoped to form a Palestinian unity government and would hold talks soon with President Mahmoud Abbas on a "political partnership".
With Middle East peace diplomacy in limbo, Israel ruled out negotiations, frozen since 2000, with any Palestinian administration involving Hamas. The group is sworn to Israel's destruction and has been behind dozens of suicide bombings.
"Hamas will have a clear vision for a government of unity -- one in which everyone joins," Moussa Abu Marzouk, a senior Hamas official, said in Damascus, calling on Abbas's Fatah to participate.
Fatah leaders, speaking after the party's crushing defeat in a parliamentary election on Wednesday, said they wanted no part in such a coalition.
In Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, who headed Hamas's list of candidates, said he had telephoned Abbas and they had agreed to meet when the president visits the city in about two days.
"We will talk about several issues including the shape of the political partnership in the coming stage," Haniyeh told Reuters.
Speaking later in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Abbas made no reference to a meeting with Haniyeh.
"We are consulting and in contact with all the Palestinian groups and definitely, at the appropriate time, the biggest party will form the cabinet," Abbas said, a reference to Hamas.
VOTER DISENCHANTMENT
Hamas's capture of 76 seats in the 132-member parliament against 43 for Fatah was widely seen as a political earthquake in the Middle East, triggered by voter disenchantment with corruption and the failure of peace efforts.
"The people have punished Fatah for its mistakes and for internal divisions," said Nabil Shaath, a senior Fatah official and a former cabinet minister.
At a news conference in Washington on Thursday, U.S. President George W. Bush said "a political party that articulates the destruction of Israel as part of a platform is a party with which we will not deal".
Hamas has mostly respected a truce for nearly a year, but says it will not give up its guns or its charter demand for an Islamic state to encompass Israel, the West Bank and Gaza.
Bush, who saw the late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat as an obstacle to peace and adopted a largely hands-off approach to the Middle East, stepped up involvement in brokering accords between the two sides after Abbas became president last year.
Israeli interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said a government involving Hamas could not be a partner for peace. Israel also refused to negotiate with the previous government, saying it had failed to combat militant groups like Hamas.
But an opinion poll in Israel's Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper showed 48 percent of Israelis favoured talking to a Hamas-led Palestinian government, while 43 percent were opposed.
Olmert has hinted at unilateral moves to set a border with the Palestinians on Israeli terms. Israel has already pulled its settlers out of the Gaza Strip without negotiations.
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Israel threw into doubt its willingness to continue the transfer of customs revenue to an aid-dependent Palestinian Authority.
"We will face practical problems of how you deal with people that call for the destruction of Israel," said Joseph Bachar, director general of the Israeli Finance Ministry.
Palestinian Economy Minister Mazen Sinokrot, sitting on the same panel as Bachar, said the Israeli transfers amounted to monthly revenues exceeding $40 million to $50 million, money needed to help pay salaries for 135,000 government employees.
(Additional reporting by Saul Hudson, Sue Pleming and Carol Giacomo in Washington, Corinne Heller and Ori Lewis in Jerusalem, Wafa Amr and Mohammed Assadi in Ramallah and Mark Trevelyan and Josiane Kremer in Davos)
posted by Marko at 1/27/2006 06:30:00 AM
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