Hamas Appears To Be Winning Civil War
The better armed and disciplined Hamas forces appear to be gaining the upper hand in what many Palestinians are describing as civil war, reports CBS News correspondent Robert Berger.
Eight more Palestinians have been killed in factional fighting in the Gaza Strip, bringing the death toll in five days of conflict to at least 55, and Fatah has suspended its participation in a unity government until the violence stops.
Fierce battles over key security positions spread to central Gaza early Wednesday, with Hamas fighters wresting control of the coastal strip's main north-south road — and putting themselves in position to cut off reinforcements to beleaguered Fatah forces.
Gunmen also fought for control of high-rise buildings in Gaza City that serve as sniper positions. Six militants died in clashes near the besieged house of a senior Fatah commander in Gaza City, in addition to four killed there on Tuesday, Hamas said. Two other people died of wounds sustained in earlier fighting.
A mortar shell hit the home of a deputy Cabinet minister from Hamas in the nearby Shati refugee camp, setting it aflame, security officials said. No one was injured, and the official was not at home, officials said.
In other developments:
Violence in Gaza between the two factions, which nominally share power in the Palestinian government, has rapidly spiraled in the direction of all-out civil war, with more than 50 reported killed since Monday. Hamas has systematically taken control of security positions in the north and south, apparently leaving the main battle for the strip's security and political nerve center in Gaza City for last.
On Wednesday afternoon, Hamas demanded Fatah-allied security forces in the north relinquish their weapons by 7 p.m. (12:00 p.m. EDT) Friday, or risk having them taken by force. The ultimatum was delivered in text messages and radio announcements.
Shops in Gaza City were shuttered tight Wednesday, and streets were mostly empty as terrified residents huddled in homes that could at any moment turn into battlegrounds, The U.N. Relief and Works Agency announced it couldn't distribute food to the 30 percent of the Gaza Strip that relies on international food aid.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah urged an end to the bloody confrontations.
"This is madness, the madness that is going on in Gaza now," he said. "Whoever shoots and fires is responsible."
The mounting bloodshed touched off protests in two main Gaza towns.
Several hundred tribal leaders, women, children and Islamic Jihad militants turned out in Gaza City for a protest initiated by Egyptian mediators. Some demonstrators scattered after masked Hamas gunmen fired in the air, but others pushed on, carrying Palestinian flags and shouting, "Do not shoot" and "national unity" over a loudspeaker.
Witnesses said Hamas gunmen shot at the protesters as they approached the besieged house of the Fatah commander from the Bakr family in Gaza City, trapping the demonstrators.
Protester Bilal Qurashali said he saw a man get shot in the head. "We are unable to get out. The place is closed," he said.
Health officials said 15 protesters were injured by bullets — five of them in the head — and were brought to the hospital in civilian cars because ambulances couldn't navigate the heavy fire.
Demonstrators had hoped the stature of the tribal leaders leading the protest would protect them, he said.
Separately, Hamas gunmen opened fire from a high-rise building at about 1,000 protesters in the southern town of Khan Younis, injuring one and breaking up the protest. And a Fatah-affiliated officer was shot to death at the National Security compound in the town.
Confrontations have turned increasingly brutal in recent days, with some killed execution-style in the streets, others in hospital shootouts or thrown off rooftops. Both sides have been arming themselves in recent weeks, smuggling weapons through tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border.
The power struggle escalated further Tuesday when Fatah suspended the activities of its ministers in the government it shares with Hamas. In an emergency meeting in the West Bank, Fatah warned it would pull out of the government if the fighting doesn't stop, said Nabil Abu Rdeneh, an aide to Abbas.
There was concern that fighting might spread to the West Bank, where Fatah has the upper hand.
The U.S. State Department, warning of a "very dangerous security situation" in Gaza, advised journalists not to travel there and urged any American journalists there to leave.
Barak is best known for the Camp David Summit in 2000 with former President Clinton and Yasser Arafat. Barak offered a Palestinian state in half of Jerusalem and nearly all the West Bank, but Arafat refused, sparking the second Palestinian uprising. Barak suffered a humiliating election defeat to Ariel Sharon a few months later.
The office of president, conceived as a ceremonial post held by a prominent statesman or thinker, has been marred over allegations that Moshe Katsav raped or otherwise sexually assaulted four women employees. Katsav has not been formally charged, pending a final hearing before Israel's attorney general, but has stepped down temporarily to fight the allegations.
The race is being viewed as an opportunity to restore the presidency's lost luster.
"The prestige of this institution is badly damaged," said political science professor Gideon Doron of Tel Aviv University. "The question in my mind is who is going to bring back the reputation to this institution."
Peres, 83, is a Nobel Peace prize winner.