Gaza City, Gaza Strip – Hamas fighters launched a fierce offensive on Gaza City on Wednesday, firing mortars and rockets at Fatah’s main security bases and the president’s compound as the Islamic group appeared close to taking control of the entire Gaza Strip.
With fighting raging on rooftops and streets in nearly all corners of Gaza, residents huddled in fear in their homes.
Fayez Abu Taha, 45, a businessman in the southern town of Rafah, said he was trapped in his apartment building with his family after Hamas fighters took over a nearby rooftop and Fatah responded by taking over the roof of his building.
“I don’t know what they are battling for now,” he said. “I can see the bullets flying from my windows. Coming and going.”
At least 15 people were killed in fighting Wednesday, bringing the total in four days of infighting to nearly 60. Among those killed Wednesday was a man shot when Hamas gunmen fired on a peaceful protest against the violence, witnesses said.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah called the fighting “madness” and pleaded with the exiled leader of Hamas to halt the violence.
Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas issued a joint statement after nightfall, calling on all sides “to halt fighting, and to return to language of dialogue and respect of agreements,” according to a statement from Abbas’ office. The call was broadcast on Palestinian TV.
Hamas radio denied the two had agreed to a truce, and clashes intensified in the hour after their statement was broadcast.
Hamas and Fatah nominally share power in a coalition government, while Fatah runs most of Gaza’s security forces. But no one was listening to the leaders’ pleas for calm as the focus of power passed to street militias.
Hamas, already in control of much of northern Gaza, seized the southern town of Khan Younis and began an assault on the town of Rafah, also in the south, security officials said.
In the afternoon, Hamas forces attacked the three main compounds of the Fatah-allied forces in Gaza City – the headquarters of the Preventive Security, the Intelligence Service and the National Forces – in what could usher in the final phase of the battle.
