Infighting resembles civil war in Gaza

Hundreds of Hamas fighters firing rockets and mortar shells captured a military headquarters and three smaller outposts from the Fatah movement Tuesday in a systematic effort by the militant Islamic faction to oust its secular Palestinian rival from the Gaza Strip.

Palestinians caught up in the clashes, which began Monday, said they verged on all-out civil war. Some people were abducted and shot execution-style or felled in gunfights that turned hospitals into battle grounds; others were thrown from rooftops. Human Rights Watch said both sides committed atrocities.

At least 19 combatants were killed Tuesday in five battles set off by Hamas’ bold offensive, which opened with an ultimatum to Fatah to abandon its police and military facilities in Gaza City and the northern part of the coastal territory. Fighting continued early today, bringing the 48-hour death toll to 39.

Political analysts said the offensive appeared to be driven by opponents of a February accord that gave Fatah a share of power in the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority Cabinet, which governs Gaza and the West Bank.

Hamas’ advances stirred alarm in Israel and abroad. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, meeting with the Netherlands’ foreign minister, said for the first time that proposals to station international peacekeepers in Gaza should be given “serious consideration” to stop Hamas from smuggling in weapons from neighboring Egypt.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on the Palestinians to back Fatah leaders’ efforts “to restore law and order.” The European Union’s external relations commissioner, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, said the EU was “extremely concerned ... about the risk of a civil war.”

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, the Fatah leader, condemned the offensive as an attempted coup. Fatah’s central committee suspended its participation in the Hamas-led coalition government and warned that if a cease-fire is not restored it will withdraw altogether, a step that would allow Abbas to dissolve the government and rule by decree.

Intermittent battles have raged since Hamas unseated Fatah in elections in January 2006 and have inflicted social and economic chaos on the coastal territory’s 1.4 million people. Hamas made similar gains four months ago in an offensive across Gaza.

Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader of the coalition government who is nominally in charge of the group’s paramilitary Executive Force, joined Abbas in calling for a cease-fire. Haniyeh’s office issued a statement urging “restraint and an end to this chapter of conflict, an immediate return to the negotiating table.”

But Haniyeh’s authority has waned since the unraveling of a landmark power-sharing agreement the factions signed in February in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

“Haniyeh is doing almost everything possible to restore the cease-fire, but he has been overtaken by opponents of the Mecca accord who want to have a showdown with Fatah and go for the jugular,” said Mouin Rabbani, a Middle East expert with the International Crisis Group, a think tank based in Brussels.

“There has always been tension within Hamas,” Rabbani added. “But what has changed is that its ability to enforce a single political line is breaking down.”

Hamas’ armed wing, the Izzidin al-Qassam Brigade, set the stage for Tuesday’s fighting by giving Fatah until 2 p.m. to abandon its security installations in Gaza City and to the north.

Instead, the Fatah-led National Security force, viewed by many Palestinians as the equivalent of an army, ordered its several thousand men in the Gaza Strip to stand and confront “this bloody party that is launching a coup against the president.”

By midafternoon, the National Security force’s northern Gaza headquarters near the Jabaliya refugee camp was under siege, with about 200 Hamas fighters pounding it with rockets and mortar rounds. Fatah security officials said in the evening that Hamas had captured the compound. The Associated Press quoted a survivor of the assault as saying that Fatah was outgunned and that reinforcements never arrived.

The Palestinian Authority Health Ministry said 10 Fatah fighters were killed and 20 wounded. Hamas said three of its combatants died.

Hamas also overran three smaller Fatah outposts in northern Gaza, exchanged fire with Fatah gunmen in the central city of Deir al Balah and waged a daylong battle for control of a Fatah training camp in Gaza City.

Three Hamas and two Fatah fighters died in those clashes, and a Hamas militant abducted Monday was found dead in the southern city of Khan Yunis. Four civilians also died.

In Gaza City, one firefight sent a dozen preschoolers scrambling for cover. Smoke rose from battles across the city, keeping residents in their homes.

Imad Almughrabi, who owns a coffee shop in the city and lives less than half a mile from the Fatah training camp, said he and his family were awakened at 3:30 a.m. Tuesday by the sound of fire from mortars, grenade launchers and machine guns.

“It’s a real war,” he said as Fatah forces held their ground late in the evening. “I can’t believe our people are using heavy machine guns against their brothers. I feel ashamed.”

Each side threatened to kill the other’s leader. A rocket-propelled grenade damaged Haniyeh’s home, and four mortar shells struck Abbas’ Gaza City office. Abbas was in the West Bank, and neither attack caused any injuries.

After a day of setbacks, Fatah forces tried to seize Hamas’ main TV station but were beaten back. The station later aired video of a group of captive men with bloodied faces and said they were among the attackers.

Palestinians thought they had seen the end of such battles in March when Abbas and Haniyeh, acting on the power-sharing accord, appointed Hani Kawasmeh to the sensitive post of Interior minister. But the independent failed in his task to bring order to the disparate security services, which remained loyal to hard-liners in each faction. Kawasmeh resigned in frustration last month.

The agreement was seen as a way to free international aid, halted after the election victory by Hamas, which has refused to recognize the state of Israel, honor past accords and renounce violence.

As the factional fighting resumed, the United States stepped up its efforts to bolster Abbas’ Fatah forces against Hamas, which the U.S. State Department lists as a terrorist group. Washington recently earmarked $43 million to help upgrade Abbas’ Presidential Guard, an elite Fatah fighting force. But U.S. involvement served only to feed the factional animosity and distrust.

Political analysts say Hamas may have been prompted to launch this week’s offensive in response to a U.S. request that Israel help Abbas bolster the force and help pay wages.

“There is now a sense among those within Hamas that time is running against them, and the sooner they have this showdown with Fatah the better, or else Fatah will get stronger,” Rabbani said.

Olmert said Tuesday that he was reluctant to send troops into Gaza “to fight the extremists on behalf of the Palestinian pragmatists.” He said he favored an international force to protect the Jewish state. But he added, “Should Gaza fall to Hamas, it would affect the entire region. Israel ... will protect its citizens against any acts of terror.”

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boudreaux@latimes.com

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Rival forces

Deadly factional fighting in the Gaza Strip between Hamas and Fatah is characterized by observers as a battle for control of the Palestinian security apparatus. Estimates of how the foes compare militarily three months after they formed a “unity” government:

Hamas

Izzidin al-Qassam

Brigade...15,000

Executive Force...6,000

Fatah

National Security...30,000

Police and Preventive

Security...30,000

General Intelligence...5,000

Presidential Guard...5,000

Al Aqsa Martyrs

Brigade...Several thousand

Source: Reuters