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The sources said Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh has urged a dialogue
with Fatah and other militias in an effort to reduce tension. Haniyeh was
said to be opposed by former Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar and Hamas's
military commanders, who have demanded a major offensive against the
opposition.
On Monday, a Hamas security vehicle was struck by an improvised
explosive device near Gaza City. At least three Hamas officers were injured.
The sources said Hamas opponents have coordinated in operations against
the new regime. Over the weekend, heavy fighting was reported between Hamas
and Jihad forces in the southern Gaza Strip in which both sides used machine
guns and rocket-propelled grenades.
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights said the clashes spread
throughout the southern Gaza town of Rafah and at least one Jihad
fighter was killed. Another 10 were injured.
"The clashes in Rafah came on the backdrop of a police attempt to detain
an Islamic Jihad activist, Abdul Fattah El Afifi, charged with a hit and run
of a policeman at the entrance of Tel El Sultan area on Oct. 19," the center
said.
On Monday, the Hamas-Jihad battles continued in Rafah. Palestinian
sources said one person was killed and at least 13 were injured.
Hamas has also been fighting a leading Palestinian clan in Gaza City. So
far, seven people have been killed in clashes between the Executive Force
and the Hilles clan, aligned with Fatah and Jihad, over the last week.
EF has come under assault in several areas of the Gaza Strip. On late
Oct. 21, an EF officer was attacked by young Palestinians in the eastern
Gaza City neighborhood of Sejaiyeh.
Witnesses said an EF force arrived and opened fire. An eight-year-old
was killed as he was walking with his mother to a nearby wedding, witnesses
said.
Palestinian sources said Hamas has sought to stem rising unrest in the
Gaza Strip by encouraging attacks against Israel. On Monday and Tuesday, at
least 16 Kassam-class, short-range missiles were fired by a range of
Palestinian militias.
Last week, former Hamas spokesman Ghazi Hamad expressed regret that the
movement took over the Gaza Strip in June 2007. In an unusual statement,
Hamad, who resigned soon after the defeat of the Fatah-aligned Palestinian
Authority, said the Gaza Strip has deteriorated under the Hamas regime.
"I think what Hamas resorted to -- the military resolution in Gaza --
was not justified," Hamad wrote in a five-page letter. "I consider it a
serious strategic mistake that burdened the movement with more than it can
bear. True, it resolved a security problem, but it created a thousand
political problems that we didn't need."
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