Factional violence undercutting Abbas

NABLUS, West Bank -- A gunfight between Palestinian police and militants left five people wounded yesterday, underscoring factional violence that has weighed on Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas's efforts to restore law and order in the West Bank.

The shooting began when more than a dozen Palestinian gunmen from a small militant group affiliated with Abbas's governing Fatah party opened fire on a police station, provoking police to return fire. There were conflicting accounts about what provoked the fight.

Militants said they started shooting after police tried to arrest a fellow militant who was driving a stolen car. But a police spokesman said the group was upset that one of its members had been beaten while in police custody.

Two police officers and three gunmen were wounded in the clash, hospital officials said.

''I heard loud noises and gunfire," said Mohammed Zohel, a witness. ''I thought the Israelis had gone into the police station, but later I saw it was gunmen fighting the police. It is a real war and very frightening."

Abbas, trying to play down the second showdown between Palestinian authorities and militants this week, said Israel's continued presence in major Palestinian towns has impeded his ability to curb violence.

''We hope that Israel will withdraw soon from these cities so that we can control security in these cities," Abbas said outside his home in Ramallah. ''As long as the Israeli Army is in the Palestinian West Bank, there will be breaches and we will deal with it."

Abbas has been trying to persuade armed men to lay down their weapons, resisting calls from Israel and the international community for a crackdown. These calls have intensified since a Palestinian suicide bomber from the West Bank killed five Israelis in Tel Aviv on Feb. 25.

Israel agreed last month to pull out of five West Bank towns, but the handover was suspended after the suicide bombing. Nablus was not one of the towns on that list.

Earlier this week, tensions between the Palestinian Authority and the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a larger militant group linked to the Fatah party, descended into gunfire in the nearby town of Jenin.

While Abbas was trying to persuade Palestinians to close ranks, the results of a poll published yesterday in Israel indicated large numbers supporting Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to evacuate the Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements, which has divided Sharon's governing Likud party.

Sixty-nine percent of the respondents to the Dialogue firm's poll said they would vote in favor of the withdrawal if a referendum on it was held, while 28 percent said they would not, reported the Haaretz daily, which commissioned the poll.

Seventy percent of the survey's respondents predicted Sharon would continue dismantling settlements in the West Bank after the summer pullout is over.

Other polls have indicated that about two-thirds of the people back the pullout.