3 Hurt in Muslim-PLO Clash as Internal Feud Turns Violent

Three Palestinians were wounded by gunfire or stabbings Sunday during a rare clash between Muslim fundamentalists and pro-PLO uprising leaders in the occupied West Bank, the army said.

The violence, attributed to a feud over Secretary of State James A. Baker III’s peace efforts in the region, brought the 41-month-old uprising against Israeli rule to a new stage of internal warfare.

Until now, most Palestinian infighting has been between nationalist activists and Arabs accused of collaborating with Israel.

Arab and Israeli reports said that Sunday’s clash broke out in the streets of Nablus on Sunday morning. After an argument, a member of the Muslim fundamentalist Hamas group shot and wounded an activist of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Fatah movement, they said.

The youth, Aman Masrojeh, 19, was shot in the back, and Hamas activists later attacked him again with knives as he was being treated at a local hospital, the reports said.

They added that soldiers later took custody of Masrojeh as he was being driven by ambulance to East Jerusalem.

A second PLO activist, Hani Meri, 25, was shot in the abdomen. A third person, Wael Shako, 17, was stabbed in the leg by a Hamas activist, Arab reports said.

The army confirmed that three Palestinians were wounded in the fight in Nablus’ Kasbah section. It added that soldiers intervened to break up the fighting and fired plastic and rubber bullets, wounding two other Arabs.

Arab reports said those wounded by the soldiers included a 14-year-old girl who was shot in the eye. The army said the second shooting victim was slightly wounded in the chest.

It was the third violent clash between rival Palestinian political factions in the past week but the first in which gunfire was reported.

Israel Radio said the fighting involved a power struggle between these factions, which differ widely about Middle East peace strategies. “As of today, it looks like it’s reached the stage of open warfare,” the radio report added.

Hamas, the Arabic word for zeal, objects to compromising with Israel and to cooperating with Baker’s efforts to arrange peace talks.

Fatah, a movement headed by PLO chief Yasser Arafat, recognizes the Jewish state and wants Palestinian statehood alongside it. Fatah leaders from the West Bank met with Baker during his four shuttle trips to the region since March.