Hamas-Fatah tensions flare again in Gaza

Tensions between the Hamas-led government and President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction flared into a shootout at the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza yesterday, just hours after pledges to calm internal unrest.

In the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Israeli security forces killed two Palestinians after firing on a car the army said was carrying wanted militants. Palestinian security sources said one of the dead men was a member of the Palestinian security forces.

The fresh clashes in Gaza came after 20 people were hurt in armed confrontations on Saturday between students and militants from Fatah and Hamas. It was the most serious internal fighting since Hamas won a parliamentary election in January.

At least four people were wounded after gunmen from Fatah's al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades stormed the Gaza ministry, where they were confronted by Hamas guards, Health Ministry officials said.

An al-Aqsa spokesman denied the men were from his faction, saying they were from a Gaza clan affiliated with Fatah. Ministry officials said the gunmen were demanding the ministry pay for someone who had treatment overseas.

The guards from Hamas's Izz el-Deen al-Qassam brigades chased off most of the Fatah intruders and captured four of the gunmen, tying them up and putting them into a police car as people in the street cheered, witnesses said.

"The time has passed when our institutions and our police can be attacked. Whoever holds a gun against one of our institutions, or one of our policemen, opens himself for death," Interior Ministry spokesman Khaled Abu Hillel said.