GAZA CITY, April 22: The Fatah party of Mahmud Abbas accused Hamas on Saturday of courting civil war, as relations between the moderate Palestinian leader and the government hit crisis point less than a month after the Islamists took power.
The war of words spilled over into violence later in the day, when some 15 people were wounded as student supporters of the two factions hurled stones at each other in Gaza City.
As tensions mounted, Fatah accused Hamas supremo Khaled Meshaal of being hysterical for saying on Friday, in a thinly veiled reference to Mr Abbas, that the Palestinian president was part of a plot to remove Hamas from power.
“We view Khaled Meshaal’s speech with concern,” said an official Fatah statement, referring to the address delivered in a Damascus suburb.
“We can only describe this speech as divisive, because it aims to provoke tensions in the Palestinian territories and spark civil war.”
The war of words began when Mr Abbas vetoed a Hamas government decision to create a new special force of armed militants headed by a wanted radical.
The move, the first time Mr Abbas has revoked a decision of the new Hamas-led government, followed US criticism of the security appointment and Israeli threats to target the militant in question.
In response, Mr Meshaal told his audience: “What is happening in Palestine is a policy carried out by a parallel government, a counter-government which deprives us of our prerogatives and the people of their rights. It is a plot.
“A certain part of our people is plotting against us. They are carrying out a premeditated plan which is aimed at our undoing.”
In its harsh response, Fatah said the speech was by ‘a man whose ambition is and always has been to cause Palestinian blood to flow ... while he lives in (Damascus exile) and benefits from the experiences of certain people to provoke divisions and civil wars’.
It described Mr Meshaal’s remarks as ‘hysterical’, and the speech as ‘full of plots, calumnies, lies and deception’.
“We refuse the use of force or weapons against our citizens in the streets,” Fatah added, referring to Saturday’s violence in Gaza City.
Since Friday, pro-Abbas groups have been demonstrating in both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
Around 500 Al Aqsa members marched in the West Bank city of Ramallah, shouting: “Long live President Abbas” and “Khaled Meshaal wants to start a civil war.”
In Nablus, demonstrators shouted: “Meshaal has sold out to Syria and Iran,” while others temporarily occupied the courthouse and demanded an apology.
And in Gaza City, Fatah supporters at Al Azhar University, a strongly pro-Fatah institution, climbed on to the roof of a building, unfurled the party’s yellow flag and began throwing rocks on students at the Islamic University, next door.
The Islamist students, supporters of Hamas, stoned them back. Fifteen people were injured in the altercations.
Mr Abbas and Hamas have been sharing power uneasily since Khaled Meshaal’s group won an upset victory in January general elections, unseating Fatah and ending its grip on power of more than a decade.
The moderate Palestinian Authority president is committed to negotiating a peace deal with Israel. Hamas continues to refuse even to recognise the Jewish state and honour previous Palestinian agreements.
On Thursday, interior minister Said Siam said he was creating a special security force of gunmen from armed factions to supplement the work of Palestinian police and security forces in clamping down on rampant chaos in the territories.
He named top Gaza-based militant Jamal Abu Samhadana, who is wanted in Israel for scores of attacks, to a senior position in the interior ministry to oversee various security elements, including the new force.
A Palestinian official said Mr Abbas had drawn up a decree to reverse the decisions and that it had been approved by the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organisation.
Looking to cool the situation, deputy prime minister Nassereddine al Shaer issued a conciliatory statement, saying Mr Meshaal’s remarks ‘do not represent the view of the Palestinian government’. —AFP
