Nine people killed in Gaza fighting

Factions' battle is worst this year

Palestinians looked at a burning building yesterday during clashes between Hamas and Fatah loyalists in Gaza City. (Photo by Abid Katib/Getty Images)

GAZA CITY - Nine people were killed yesterday as Hamas routed a well-armed clan loyal to the rival Fatah group from its urban stronghold. It was the worst flare-up of internal Palestinian strife this year.

Hospital officials said 72 people, including 12 children, were wounded as mortar shells and machine-gun fire rattled Gaza City's crowded Shijaiyeh neighborhood during the daylong battle. Among the injured was clan leader Ahmed Hilles, who fled with dozens of his followers into Israel.

Hundreds of Hamas police officers raided the neighborhood in a heavy predawn fog, seeking 11 suspects in a car bombing that killed five Hamas activists a week earlier. The suspects are allied with the large Hilles clan, which lives in the area and had refused to hand them over. Police clad in body armor battled street fighters and rooftop snipers as loudspeakers from Hamas-controlled mosques urged residents to stay indoors. Electricity to the neighborhood of 45,000 people was cut.

The Hamas forces gained control of the area after 14 hours of combat, but only after Hilles and remnants of his paramilitary group escaped through an Israeli border crossing less than a mile from the family compound. An Israeli military spokesman said 150 Palestinians, about 20 of them wounded, were allowed to cross the border.

Hamas fired several mortar shells toward the border in an apparent attempt to stop escaping fugitives.

Said Siam, the Hamas interior minister, said police arrested dozens of people in Shijaiyeh and seized large quantities of weapons in house-to-house searches. He said four of the 11 bombing suspects were in custody.

The Interior Ministry said three police officers were killed, two by rocket-propelled grenades and one by an explosive. The dead included three Fatah fighters and three unidentified people, Palestinian medical officials said.

Hamas and Fatah shared power in a short-lived Palestinian Authority coalition government that collapsed in June 2007, when Hamas, a militant Islamic group, seized control of the Gaza Strip after days of heavy fighting. The rift left Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president and the leader of Fatah, in charge of only the West Bank.

Before yesterday's fighting, Fatah had put up little armed resistance to Hamas's rule in the seaside enclave. Last month, the two factions began trying to end their differences with help from Egyptian mediators.

The July 26 car bombing, which also killed a 6-year-old girl, ended the factional calm.

The attack set off reciprocal crackdowns by Hamas in Gaza and Fatah in the West Bank. Hundreds of Palestinians in both groups have been arrested. Hamas shut down a Fatah-affiliated radio station. Fatah imposed a ban on public assembly in the West Bank.

At the center of the conflict was Hilles, a member of the Revolutionary Council that advises Fatah's leadership. He was involved in negotiations between Fatah and Hamas before their violent split last year. Then, as other Fatah activists fled Gaza, he stayed put with his paramilitary force and was often the Fatah point of contact in Gaza for the Hamas leadership.

But when members of his force became suspects in the car bombing, he was accused of hiding them. After days of negotiations, Hilles was given until midnight Friday to hand them to the police.

Ehab al-Ghsain, a spokesman for the Hamas Interior Ministry, said: "The Hilles family has become a military force and its members have been attacking, abducting and even killing people. We must put an end to their attacks on innocent citizens."

The family issued a statement denying involvement in the car bombing and other violence.

Hilles said the clan fought back as a matter of honor. "You have to decide: Either be trampled under Hamas's shoes, or stand in dignity," he said.

He also said Hamas police cut off electricity as they launched the raid.

Abbas denounced the Hamas raid as a setback for his efforts at Palestinian unity and worked with Israel to arrange safe passage for Hilles and his followers.

Ambulances met the fleeing Palestinians on the Israeli side and took the wounded to hospitals, the Israeli spokesman said.

Material from the Associated Press was included in this report.