Gaza gripped by gun battles between factions

The simmering and unresolved tensions between the two biggest Palestinian factions flared briefly once again into open violence yesterday in both Gaza and the West Bank.

A Hamas militant was said to have died of wounds sustained when at least one of his comrades were seized by gunmen in Gaza City during the night.

A rescue operation later triggered a ferocious 20-minute gunfight close to the house of the senior Hamas leader and Palestinian Foreign Minister, Mahmoud Zahar.

The internal conflict also spread again to the West Bank, this time to the city of Nablus. Medics said at least six people were wounded in exchanges between about a dozen Fatah and Hamas gunmen as Hamas prepared for a rally in a local football stadium.

The political tensions were also evident in a decision by the office of the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, to block Hamas appointments to senior government positions.

Although there was no confirmation, the gun battle in Gaza City - which, according to one witness, had involved the firing of about 2,000 rounds in the first 10 minutes - was thought to be connected with an earlier gun battle on Wednesday, when two members of the large Dogmush clan were killed.

That battle had occurred when members of the Hamas executive force went to eastern Gaza hunting for a gunman said to have earlier fired at a member of the faction's military wing.

There had reportedly been threats of vengeance against Hamas leaders from at least one of the Dogmush family at the funerals of the two men.

The firefight was thought to have spread quickly, involving members of the armed guard round the Gaza residence of Mr Abbas - who was not in Gaza - and Hamas militiamen guarding the house of Dr Zahar.

Hamas officials accused Fatah gunmen of firing at Dr Zahar's home. News agencies said local residents had put their children in bathtubs for protection against stray bullets.

Gaza was reportedly quiet again after the exchanges, which were ended when Muslim clerics intervened to broker an end to the fighting.

The Palestinian Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, urged gunmen to stop spilling blood and said government officials were working to bring the violence under control. The political veto of the government appointments was disclosed yesterday, after a claim earlier in the week by Mr Haniyeh that Mr Abbas was trying to subvert the authority of the elected Hamas government by obstructing the appointments.

Efforts were still under way by two of the smaller Palestinian factions, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, to resolve the tensions through the formation of a "unity government" composed of figures from a broad spread of Palestinian groups.

n Asher Weissgan, the West Bank settler who murdered four Palestinian workers and injured a fifth in protest at Gaza disengagement in August 2005, committed suicide in prison yesterday.

Israeli media said Weissgan, 38, hanged himself in a cell at the Ayalon prison with his phylacteries, leather straps which worn each day in prayer by Jews. The prisons service spokesman, Orit Steltzer, said he had left a prayer book open on the page of the Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead.

Weissgan had reportedly told investigators that he killed the four West Bank labourers to provoke a violent Palestinian retaliation, which would then tie down Israeli troops and halt their removal of settlers from the Gaza Strip. He was said to have declared that he hoped Ariel Sharon, the architect of the Gaza withdrawal plan, would be killed as well.