GAZA (Reuters) - Hamas's armed wing threatened on Tuesday to storm security headquarters controlled by the rival Fatah faction in Gaza City unless they are evacuated immediately, an ultimatum verging on a declaration of war. An announcement on a Hamas radio station gave Fatah until 2 p.m. (1100 GMT) to pull security men out of the military intelligence, presidential guard, national security and preventive security facilities.
There was no immediate response from Fatah, whose gunmen have been locked in a new surge of fighting with Hamas that has brought civil war closer and killed at least 20 people since Saturday. The battles reflect a raging power struggle between Hamas and secular Fatah, partners in a three-month-old unity government.
“Arab unity”, one of my favorite oxymorons.
In fresh flareups, gunmen fired at the home of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas and the office of President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah. No one was hurt.
ThatÂ’s too bad. The big shots need a chance to bleed just like the little people.
Hamas gunmen swept into Fatah posts across the coastal territory, capturing some in battles and others without a fight, local residents said, describing the northern and central Gaza Strip as largely under the Islamist group's control. The attacks followed fighting on Monday in which at least 14 people were killed. The violence, described by Gazans as more brutal than in the past, has included a shootout in a hospital, dropping foes to their deaths from high-rise buildings and the execution-style slaying of a Fatah field commander outside his home.
"COUP"
A spokesman for Abbas's office accused "a group within Hamas, in which some political and military leaders are participating, of plotting a coup" aimed at imposing sole Hamas control over the Gaza Strip. "The Palestinian presidency is worried about this plot...which is pushing the homeland into an ugly civil war," the spokesman said in a statement. "President Abbas is calling for an immediate ceasefire and to start a serious dialogue."
Unlike what was supposed to pass for it in Mecca. Any more "serious dialogue" and these guys are gonna turn into French politicians.
Palestinian analyst Ali al-Jarbawi said he expected the unity government formed in a bid to end internal violence and ease Western sanctions on the Hamas-led administration -- to remain in place. "It will be there, (but) it is incapable of doing its job. The situation will be completely paralyzed," Jarbawi said. Evoking a measure Israel uses to cordon off Palestinian areas in operations against militants, Hamas's armed wing declared northern Gaza and the centre of the territory, where six people were wounded in clashes, "closed military zones."
"Stay at home and you will be safe," Hamas's Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades warned Fatah fighters in an announcement over a radio station, in a bid to prevent the rival faction from rushing reinforcements to battle scenes. Some 630 Palestinians have died in internal strife since Hamas came to power in 2006.
Testimony to their incredibly crappy marksmanship. WhatÂ’s that, one deader per every 1,000 rounds fired? Feh!
In a widening of the conflict, Abbas's Presidential Guard seized equipment in an office of Hamas's al-Aqsa television in the West Bank city of Ramallah, a security source said. The station broadcasts from Gaza.
Was it a white media jeep?
Two gunmen, one from Hamas and the other from Fatah, were killed in fighting in the central Gaza Strip. Gunmen also abducted and then killed a member of Hamas's armed wing, a nephew of Abdel Aziz-Rantissi, a Hamas leader assassinated by Israel in 2004.
Rantissi junior ainÂ’t rantinÂ’ no moÂ’.
