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Five Palestinians Killed, Scores Injured in Gaza Factional Clashes
GAZA CITY, Dec. 21 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - At least five Palestinians were killed Friday and more than 60 hurt as Hamas supporters clashed in the Gaza Strip for a second day with Palestinian police.
The violence erupted during the funeral of a slain Islamic Jihad member, 17-year-old Mahmud Alemkayad, who was killed overnight during a gunbattle between Palestinian security forces and members of the Islamic Resistance Movement, or Hamas.
A group of several hundred Hamas members broke away from the procession and surrounded a Palestinian police station and some gunmen opened fire, witnesses said.
Witnesses said homemade hand grenades were also thrown at the station and that the security services retaliated by opening fire on the protestors.
Some people in the crowd used loudspeakers to urge Palestinians to "save their bullets for our common enemies instead of using them against ourselves."
In addition, a delegation from the National and Islamic Forces - an umbrella group which has been coordinating the Intifadah, and includes Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat's own Fatah movement, as well as Jihad and Hamas - arrived on the scene in a bid to stop the violence.
Sources said the worst clashes occurred in the Jabaliya refugee camp, where Abdelaziz al-Sawarka, 18, from the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahia, was shot dead.
According to his friends and family, he was a member of Islamic Jihad, the smaller rival of Hamas.
Four other Palestinians were also shot dead in the clashes, hospital sources said. At least one of the four unidentified victims was also believed to be close to resistance groups, witnesses said, adding that at least another 60 people had been wounded in the unrest.
The previous night, another shootout between the Hamas and Palestinian police injured 23 people, including 18 policemen, when Palestinian security attempted to arrest Hamas leader Abdul Aziz al-Rantissi. In all, six Palestinians have been killed and 94 hurt in internal confrontations since Thursday, doctors said.
Earlier in the day, about 400 Hamas supporters marched on a police station in the Dir al-Balah refugee camp in central Gaza, throwing rocks and bottles. Police fired in the air to repel the demonstrators.
The continuing factional violence occurred as Hamas formally announced that it was suspending attacks against Israel.
On Wednesday night, Hamas called for a halt to attacks against Israel, an appeal which was confirmed Friday when the movement's political wing urged all members of the group's armed wing to implement a decision to stop all operations.
"This decision is to protect our Palestinian national union and to guard our way of struggle until we get our independence, although we know the Israeli occupation and its aggression policy, will continue," the group said in a statement.
Hamas said in a leaflet faxed to news agencies that it ordered the attacks suspended "until further notice" to preserve Palestinian unity. The announcement was seen as a victory for the beleaguered Arafat, who has been under intense U.S. and European pressure to prevent attacks on Israel.
The appeal was aimed at the group's military wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, which have perpetrated the organization's attacks in Israel, as well as mortar attacks often directed at Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip.
It was the first time Hamas had made such a promise in the 15 months of fighting.
However, the Hamas decision only referred to stopping attacks in Israel, not in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, leaving open the possibility of further resistance activity. The ban on mortar fire extended to both Israel and the Palestinian territories, according to the leaflet.
A senior Palestinian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Hamas announcement was a result of negotiations between leaders of the group and senior Palestinian Authority officials that ended early Friday.
But Islamic Jihad later announced through its representative in Lebanon that it would continue attacks against Israel. Both groups have traditionally been fiercely opposed to negotiations with the Jewish state and have carried out the bulk of the attacks against Israel over the past several years.
Israel's reaction was guarded. In the past 15 months of fighting, resistance activists have killed many Israelis in attacks, including 36 this month.
"What's positive? That they stop terror activities in one place, but keep murdering women and children somewhere else?'' said Raanan Gissin, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. "As long as the terror activities continue ... we will implement our right of self-defense, and we will act against them with all our might."
Arafat, whom Israel has frequently held responsible for the attacks, has been under huge pressure to crackdown on activists since a wave of deadly attacks in Israel in early December.
In an unprecedented address, the beleaguered Palestinian leader called for a halt to all armed operations against Israel and vowed to hunt down activists challenging his authority.
Meanwhile, the White House said Friday that Arafat has taken "some positive steps" to halt terrorism in the Middle East, but insisted "more is required."
"All terror activities everywhere must stop immediately," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters. "Ensuring this is Arafat's responsibility. Hamas is a terrorist organization. It remains Arafat's responsibility to demonstrate that he does not want terrorism to be practiced in the Middle East. He's taken some positive steps. More is required to put an end to the terror attacks."
The Palestinian leader renewed his truce call in a speech Sunday. He referred to bombings and other operations against Israel as "terrorist activity" for the first time. Arafat's speech pitted his security forces against the activists, including some affiliated with Arafat's Fatah. Arafat has always moved carefully in confronting his rivals, fearing a civil war.
However, Israeli officials remained skeptical of Arafat's intentions. Government officials said Arafat was doing just enough to win back sympathy from the United States and Europe, which have heaped criticism on the Palestinian leader for failing to stop resistance activities.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said envoy retired Marine General Anthony C. Zinni would return to the region only "when his presence can be effective in moving toward a durable ceasefire."
Zinni left last weekend after three weeks of fruitless truce talks marred by a devastating Israeli military campaign against Palestinian Authority targets and Palestinian retaliatory attacks.
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