Major Fatah headquarters in Gaza falls to Hamas
Posted: 14 June 2007 1926 hrs

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GAZA CITY : The major Fatah headquarters in the Gaza Strip fell to fighters of the rival Islamist Hamas movement on Thursday after a fierce hours-long battle.

Hamas gunmen broke through into the compound in the Tal al-Hawa neighbourhood in Gaza City and hoisted the green flag of their movement on the roof after hours of clashes with Fatah fighters holed up inside, they said.

Medics said at least two Fatah loyalist were killed and another dozen wounded in the clashes.

Black-clad, masked Hamas men were seen standing guard as dozens of Fatah fighters, some of them stripped to their underwear, were escorted out of the building with their hands in the air. At least one Fatah man was seen being shoved and beaten.

The success for Hamas came as Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas was reported considering firing the coalition cabinet of the fragile unity government.

An increasingly alarmed international community warned that the no-holds-barred power struggle between Islamist Hamas and secular Fatah movement endangered prospects of a future Palestinian state and peace with Israel.

The United Nations said it was mulling sending foreign troops to quell the spiralling bloodshed that threatens to sink into anarchy the impoverished and weapons-awashed Gaza, one of the world's most densely populated places.

Officials told AFP Abbas was considering sacking the unity cabinet between his Fatah and its rival Hamas movement after warning of collapse and civil war if the Gaza "madness" continued.

"He is seriously considering dismissing the government," one senior official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The coalition uniting Hamas and Fatah was set up in March with the hope of ending the internecine bloodshed and lifting a debilitating Western aid boycott imposed on the government after Hamas formed a cabinet alone a year ago.

The president was due to make his decision after holding crisis talks with senior leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organisation and his Fatah party, an Abbas aide said.

"This meeting will adopt a definitive position in regard to the government and our partnership with Hamas," Nabil Amr told a press conference in Ramallah, adding that "definitive measures will be announced."

In the past several days the Islamists drove Fatah from two important positions in the northern town of Jabaliya and the southern town of Khan Yunis.

At least 84 people have died in the increasingly vicious gunbattles since they flared up again a week ago between the rivals separated by ideology and at loggerheads for years. Since December, more than 230 people have died in fighting.

Human Rights Watch has accused both sides of committing war crimes during the fighting, which has turned hospitals into battlegrounds, seen ambulances prevented from reaching wounded and peace demonstrators shot dead.

The fighting has forced the United Nations main Palestinian refugee agency to suspend all but essential activities and the European Union to halt its relief projects in the territory where the majority of people receive aid.

The fighting has raged despite repeated appeals for calm from Palestinian leaders, civilians and world powers.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon said the idea of sending an international force to restore peace in the Gaza Strip was worth exploring, and held preliminary discussions on the issue with members of the UN Security Council.

- AFP /ls