One man has been killed and several others injured after armed men clashed in the Gaza Strip with members of the presidential guard loyal to Mahmoud Abbas, the Fatah-backed president. A security official said Hamas members tried to storm a southern Gaza training camp for the presidential guard, triggering a gun battle.
Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas's military wing, however, denied responsibility for the attack.
The latest clashes came after at least 18 Palestinians were wounded in fighting on Saturday in protests after Abbas called for early elections, medics and witnesses said.
A Palestinian boy was killed when he was caught in crossfire in Gaza City, medical sources said.
A statement from Abbas's presidential guard said Ismail Mahmud, a guard stationed at the base's gate was killed in Sunday's attack. Three guards were also wounded.
Palestinian presidential security sources said dozens of Hamas's al-Qassam Brigades members stormed the training centre in Shaikh Ijleen district, south Gaza city, firing mortar shells and rocket-propelled grenades early on Sunday.
Official Palestinian TV also indentified the attackers as Hamas fighters.
The attackers fled after 20 minutes when reinforcements were sent to the base from other presidential guard camps, security officials said.
Because it is a training facility, only about a dozen people were inside the base when fighters pulled up in vehicles and launched their attack, security officials said.
In a related development, Khalid Abu Hilal, a spokesman for the interior ministry, said Sayeed Siyam, the Palestinian interior minister, ordered Rashid Abu Shbak, head of internal security, to arrest Jon Muslih, a leader of al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the military wing of Fatah, for allegedly threatening the prime minister, foreign minister and interior minister.
Hamas has rejected Abbas's call for elections, which it said amounted to a call for "civil war" and vowed to fight the measure by bringing its supporters into the streets.
"Oh, Abu Mazen, oh spy!" chanted Hamas supporters, some of them masked and carrying the green flags of the movement and portraits of Ismail Haniya, the prime minister, in Gaza City.
"No, a hundred times not to early elections! Abu Mazen's [Abbas's] call is a provocation and a coup d'etat against legitimacy and democracy," a Hamas spokesman, Ismail Radwan, told the crowd.
Abbas said he decided to call for early presidential and parliamentary elections to resolve an unprecedented political crisis with Hamas, the ruling party.
"I decided to call for early presidential and legislative elections," Abbas said during a speech in Ramallah on Saturday.
"Basic law stipulates that the people are the source of power. Let the people have their say and decide. I will talk as quickly as possible with the central elections commission to launch the preparations for the ballot."
Abbas dismissed warnings that early polls would lead to civil war.
He said: "Despite the suffering, the pain, the confrontations, whoever is responsible for them, we will not allow ourselves to sink into a civil war."
Abbas expressed determination to keep the Palestinian Liberation Organisation as the only legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.
"Those who talk about the illegitimacy of the PLO's executive committee are operating under its umbrella abroad," he said.
Hamas rejected Abbas's announcement.
Wasfi Kabha, the minister of prisoners' affairs, said: "Our priority is to form a national unity government. It is the only solution. We reject anything which complicates the Palestinian situation."
Hamas, which won parliamentary elections in January, had earlier said it would regard any call for fresh elections as a coup. Abbas said he called for early elections to resolve the current political crisis.
A senior aide to Abbas said on Saturday that elections may be delayed until the middle of next year for legal and technical reasons.
Saeb Erekat, a former negotiations minister, said Abbas first had to issue a presidential decree covering the early parliamentary and presidential polls. After that, voter rolls would need 90 days to be updated.
He said: "Technically, the elections cannot be held before mid-2007."
Abbas has also decided to appoint a new leadership committee for his Fatah party, in apparent preparations for the elections, his office said.
Agencies
Publication time: 17 December 2006, 10:55
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