MIDDLE EAST:A militant loyal to Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction was killed and seven people were wounded yesterday in the first deadly clash between Fatah and Hamas since a unity government was formed.
Within hours, two Palestinians linked to Hamas were abducted in Gaza City in a sign violence could spread despite the new coalition's stated aim of ending factional strife.
Fatah said Hamas security forces fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the northern Gaza home of a senior al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades commander, killing one of its members. Seven people, including at least four gunmen and a bystander, were wounded, but the al-Aqsa commander was unhurt.
Fatah spokesman Abdel Hakim Awad said Hamas had planned the attack in advance and warned of "grave consequences" if the Islamists mounted any more. Fresh gunfights were heard elsewhere in Gaza as militants from both sides took to the streets.
A spokesman for Hamas's armed wing, Abu Ubaida, said Hamas gunmen had only responded to shooting from the al-Aqsa commander's house. He said a Fatah fighter was preparing to fire a rocket-propelled grenade when it exploded in his hands, killing him and wounding the others.
It was the first deadly clash since Mr Abbas's secular Fatah faction and Hamas Islamists formed a unity cabinet on Saturday.
The unity deal has eased a western diplomatic embargo of the Palestinian government but a year-old ban on direct aid remains.
Hamas said it suspected Fatah of seizing one of its political leaders, and a lecturer at the Hamas-linked Islamic University, in Gaza City. Fatah had no immediate comment.
Brushing aside Israeli appeals to shun the government, the EU and the UN sent their Middle East envoys for talks with non-Hamas ministers.
In his first act after swearing in the new government, Mr Abbas appointed Hamas's long-time foe, Mohammad Dahlan, as national security adviser, angering the Islamist movement.
Over Fatah objections, Hamas has pushed ahead with plans to double the size of its security forces to 12,000 members. The force is built mostly from members of Hamas's armed wing, which on Monday carried out its first attacks against Israelis since a shaky Gaza truce took effect in November.
The US security co-ordinator between Israel and the Palestinians, Lieut-Gen Keith Dayton, told US lawmakers privately last week that Hamas's forces were growing more quickly than Fatah's.
Israel says the Palestinian government should be shunned until it meets international demands to recognise the Jewish state, renounce violence and accept interim peace deals. But EU Middle East envoy Marc Otte met finance minister Salam Fayyad in Ramallah yesterday, a day after talks in Gaza with foreign minister Ziad Abu Amr, European and Palestinian officials said.
Meanwhile, yesterday Labour foreign affairs spokesman Michael D Higgins said Ireland and the EU should take a lead in giving "explicit recognition" to the new unity government instead of taking their cue from Washington.
"The likelihood now is that the EU and Ireland will simply co-ordinate their response to that of the US and lose the opportunity presented," he said. "We must now recognise this government as Norway has been swift to do." - (Reuters)
Additional reporting Deaglán de Bréadún