gaza • Fighting between rival Palestinian factions escalated across Gaza yesterday, killing at least 17 people, as Hamas overran compounds used by President Mahmoud Abbas’s forces and two major universities were set ablaze.
Meanwhile, President Mahmoud Abbas and exiled Hamas supremo Khaled Meshaal yesterday declared a ceasefire between their feuding factions in the Gaza Strip.
Shortly after the ceasefire was announced, unknown gunmen opened fire on the motorcade of the Egyptian envoy to the Gaza Strip, who has been at the heart of mediation efforts between Abbas’s Fatah and the ruling Hamas faction.
There were no injuries in the incident which cast doubts on the chances of the ceasefire, which came three days after the declaration of another truce.
Residents of the narrow coastal Gaza Strip, home to 1.5 million Palestinians, hid in their homes instead of attending Friday prayers as the rivals fought running gunbattles with rifles and rocket-propelled grenades from streets and rooftops.
“Gaza is being burned down,” Arafat Abu Eyad said from his smoke-filled balcony overlooking smouldering buildings.
Following a telephone call by Hamas’s political leader Khaled Meshaal to Abbas and Egyptian-mediated talks in Gaza between Abbas’s Fatah group and Hamas, a senior Fatah leader said the two sides had agreed to attempt another ceasefire and withdraw their gunmen from the streets.
“A meeting will be held on Saturday to continue laying down the mechanisms to reach out for a comprehensive calm,” Samir Al Mashhrawi told reporters in Gaza.
At the urging of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah, Abbas of Fatah and Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal agreed to hold meetings in the holy city of Makkah to try to renew unity talks. Abbas aide Nabil Abu Rdainah said they would meet on Tuesday.
But in a move likely to put pressure on Hamas, the president told a committee in charge of national elections to move forward with plans for presidential and parliamentary votes if talks to form a unity coalition fell through, Abu Rdainah said.
Abbas, who in December called for new elections, did not set a deadline for his ultimatum.
Nine fighters loyal to Abbas, four Hamas gunmen and four civilians, including two children, were killed on Friday in a second day of clashes in Gaza that shattered a three-day-old truce between Fatah and the ruling Islamist movement.
The latest casualties included a Fatah security officer and a civilian, hospital officials said. Unidentified gunmen also shot at the car of a Fatah official, wounding his bodyguard, Palestinian security sources said. At least 23 Palestinians have been killed and more than 200 wounded in the last 24 hours of internecine fighting.
