Gaza City, Gaza Strip – Hamas and Fatah gunmen fought in Gaza City’s beachfront neighborhoods and around security compounds Saturday, ignoring renewed truce appeals and Arab mediation efforts. One man was killed, raising the death toll from three days of fighting to 26.
Bursts of gunfire alternated with periods of calm, and in areas of Gaza City not affected by the fighting, people tried to go about their lives. Boys played soccer in the streets, horse-drawn carts maneuvered through alleys, and shoppers stocked up on supplies for the next round of battle.
Nasser Mushtaha, who owns a high-rise near President Mahmoud Abbas’ compound, said members of Abbas’ Presidential Guard were posted on his roof and at the entrance to the building. He said he received phone calls from Hamas members, who warned they would blow up the building unless the troops left. But some of the guardsmen refused.
Mushtaha complained about his building being used as an outpost.
“Who will protect us? What is our fault? We are neither Fatah nor Hamas,” he said.
In the Sheik Radwan neighborhood, Ali Ustaz used a lull to buy a battery-powered radio so he could follow developments despite frequent power cuts. “There is no hope for a solution,” Ustaz said, referring to an elusive power-sharing deal between Abbas, the Fatah leader, and the Islamic militant Hamas, the two factions grappling for control of the Palestinian government.
Abbas and Hamas’ supreme leader, Khaled Mashaal, are to meet Tuesday in the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, for a reconciliation hosted by Saudi King Abdullah. The highest- profile mediation effort in several weeks of fighting is increasing pressure on both sides to end their power struggle and form a coalition government.
Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas said Saturday that he held Abbas responsible for the continued fighting and demanded that he rein in his security forces.
Hamas’ top security chief, Interior Minister Said Siyam, said that a new cease-fire had been reached and that both sides agreed to pull their forces off the streets.
A similar agreement reached a day before quickly unraveled, and more gunfire was heard after Siyam’s announcement.
