Fighting Plunges Gaza Further Into Chaos
Pastor Dale Morgan
May 18, 9:43 AM EDT
*Fighting Plunges Gaza Further Into Chaos*
By IBRAHIM BARZAK
Associated Press Writer
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) -- Israeli planes pounded Hamas targets and
rival Palestinian factions exchanged bursts of automatic weapons fire
outside Gaza City's Islamic University on Friday, as a volatile mix of
Israeli strikes and Palestinian infighting plunged Gaza deeper into chaos.
Five Palestinians were killed in a single airstrike by Israel. Israel
said the strike was in response to Hamas rocket attacks on southern
Israel - a campaign that persisted on Friday with Hamas firing three
rockets at the town of Sderot. Three people in the town were injured by
shrapnel and several others were treated for shock.
The sound of gunfire and explosions from fighting between Hamas and
Fatah rang out for the sixth straight day in Gaza. Outside the Islamic
University - a Hamas stronghold - one person was wounded from the
exchange of fire, but it was not immediately known from which side.
The fighting largely died down later in the day after Fatah and Hamas
fighters took up positions around the university. Earlier, the office of
the university's president, Kamelen Shaath, was attacked by
rocket-propelled grenades, according to Hamas.
Shaath appealed for an immediate halt to the violence.
"Universities must be outside the circle of violence and I appeal to the
president and all the wise people on both sides to try and spare the
university the agony of this fight," he said.
In six days of mayhem, 47 Palestinians have died in infighting and
another 17 were killed by Israeli strikes. The latest casualty was a
40-year-old Palestinian fisherman named Samir Amodi, who was shot in the
head by a sniper in Gaza City's harbor.
Israeli aircraft fired missiles east of Gaza City on Friday, killing
five Palestinians, at least three of them Hamas militants, Hamas and
local doctors said. Six people were wounded.
The military said the target was a Hamas headquarters building. Three
other strikes followed, including an afternoon hit on a Hamas military
building near the central Gazan town of Deir al Balah. No casualties
were reported, most likely because Hamas had ordered its people to
evacuate installations considered targets. But the group's
infrastructure suffered further damage.
The intensity of Palestinian street battles has waned since a peak two
days ago. But the latest cease-fire was not holding. Shots rang out in
many areas, and gunmen who had promised to withdraw from the streets
were still manning roadblocks and positions on rooftops.
"Our retaliation for (Fatah's) crimes is going to be beyond their
imagination," Abu Obeida, spokesman for Hamas's military wing, told The
Associated Press.
Gen. Jamal Kayed, Fatah's security commander in Gaza, said his group had
already begun implementing the cease-fire but claimed Hamas was not
willing to follow suit.
Walid al-Awad, a member of a committee set up to implement the
cease-fire, said his team worked late into the night to get the sides to
withdraw, but to no avail.
"Nothing has been implemented, and I have warned both sides that this a
time bomb that is sabotaging our efforts," al-Awad said.
The fighting between Hamas and Fatah has all but destroyed their
two-month-old power-sharing deal and brought them close to all-out civil
war.
By most accounts, Hamas' performance in the latest round of internal
fighting has been superior to Fatah's, with greater discipline and more
motivated fighters.
Although Israel said it was not taking sides, the airstrikes did make it
harder for Hamas gunmen to move around and that could help Fatah's fighters.
Hamas commanders instructed their fighters on walkie-talkies to avoid
riding in vehicles, talking on cell phones or gathering in large groups
- and to evacuate buildings known by both Israel and Fatah as Hamas
hangouts.
The Israeli strikes have introduced a new layer of violence and
uncertainty. A senior army official, speaking on condition of anonymity
because no official decision has been made, said Israel had no immediate
plans for a major ground offensive to halt rocket fire.
There was no sign of any Israeli military buildup that would indicate
plans for a serious intervention, though a few tanks and soldiers moved
just across the Gaza border on Thursday.
"Israel will take every defensive measure to stop these rocket attacks.
We will defend our citizens against the rockets, against the weapons,
against the Iranian-backed Hamas who are attacking Israel," government
spokeswoman Miri Eisen said.
Analysts said Israeli policy makers were probably trying to walk a fine
line to avoid uniting Palestinian factions into a common front against
Israel. But Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, a retired
general, said Israel could not stand idly by while Palestinian rockets
continued.
"We have to show them one thing, that the moment you fire, we shall
return fire," he told Israel Radio.
Hamas Web sites, radio and TV carried accusations that forces loyal to
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas were working with Israel - a charge
dismissed as "absurd" by a Fatah spokesman.
On Friday, Hamas TV named three Fatah security chiefs who it said were
in secret contact with "foreign" security personnel to exchange
information on Palestinian militant groups.
"They are deep into treason, and we will deal with them accordingly,"
the broadcast said. The TV did not specify which foreigners, but Fatah
forces affiliated with Abbas have received advice and training from the U.S.
With his aides citing security concerns, Abbas canceled a Thursday trip
to Gaza for talks with Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was under intense public pressure to
respond to the Hamas barrage, and he visited Sderot late Thursday.
"I am handling this crisis in order to remove this threat as much as
possible," his office quoted him as saying.
Olmert is fighting for political survival in the face of plummeting
popularity and harsh criticism of his handling of last summer's war in
Lebanon. He probably would be wary of a major ground offensive in Gaza,
fearful of another inconclusive effort.
On Friday, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni briefed members of the
diplomatic corps in Israel on the latest developments and showed them
video of a Sderot school damaged by rocket fire.
"For too long the international community took the situation in the
south of Israel as acceptable, as part of life in Israel, and it's not,"
she told Tel-Aviv based envoys. On Thursday, she told German Foreign
Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeyer in a phone call that she expects the
European Union to apply diplomatic pressure on Palestinians to halt the
rocket fire.
(This version CORRECTS that university president's office, not a dean's
house, was attacked.)