Factions in ministry shootout

GAZA - Tensions between the Hamas-led Government and President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction flared into a shootout at the Palestinian Health Ministry yesterday, despite pledges to calm an eruption of internal fighting.

At least four people were wounded after gunmen from Fatah's al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades stormed into the ministry, where they were confronted by Hamas guards, ministry officials said.

An al-Aqsa spokesman denied the men were from his faction, saying they were from a Gaza clan affiliated with Fatah. The guards from Hamas' Izz el-Deen al-Qassam brigades chased off most of the Fatah intruders and captured four of the gunmen, tying them up and putting them into a police car as people in the street cheered, witnesses said.

"The time has passed when our institutions and our police can be attacked. Whoever holds a gun against one of our institutions, or one of our policemen, opens himself for death," Interior Ministry spokesman Khaled Abu Hillel said.

About 20 people were hurt in armed confrontations in Gaza on Sunday between students and militants from Fatah and Hamas.

The violence followed the condemnation by exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal of Abbas' veto of a new Gaza security force formed by the Islamic group and headed by a top militant.

The appointment of Jamal Abu Samhadana, head of the Popular Resistance Committees, as leader of the new Gaza police force was widely seen as an attempt by Hamas to strengthen its grip on the powerful Interior Ministry. Abbas cancelled the decision.

- REUTERS