Fatah-linked group to deploy gunmen on Gaza border

Sun Jun 4, 5:56 PM ET

GAZA CITY (AFP) - An armed group linked to Fatah said it would deploy 1,250 gunmen on Gaza Strip borders to guard against Israeli raids in the latest move set to exacerbate tensions with the governing Hamas.

"The (Al-Aqsa) Martyrs' Brigades in the Gaza Strip decided to deploy a protection unit of 1,250 fighters," said the faction, which is loosely affiliated to the once dominant Fatah party of Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas.

Their objective will be to "protect the Palestinian resistance from aggressions of Zionist special units. They will be deployed on the borders of the Gaza Strip," the statement added.

Four Palestinians, including three members of the Islamic Jihad faction, were killed last Tuesday during the first Israeli special force operation in the Gaza Strip since Israeli troops left the territory last year.

Al-Aqsa delivered the statement just 24 hours after some 2,500 members of a new armed force loyal to Abbas deployed in the volatile northern West Bank city of Jenin and two weeks after Hamas fielded a similar force in the Gaza Strip.

Al-Aqsa also threatened to deploy members of the "unit" in the streets of Gaza if "assassinations by unknown (gunmen) continue," a reference to recent deadly feuding that has killed both Fatah and Hamas supporters.

"We will deploy this unit in the main streets of the Gaza Strip to protect Palestinian citizens," it said.

Although there was no immediate reaction from Hamas or its government and no date announced for the deployment, if Al-Aqsa patrols monitor the border the move is likely only to send Palestinian tensions soaring.

Members of a "Special Protective Force" took to the streets of Jenin clad in black T-shirts emblazoned with pictures of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, although not all the original 2,500 were still visible on Sunday.

Any new deployments are likely only to escalate tensions between Hamas and Fatah, which flared into clashes in which 11 people were killed in recent weeks, despite an ongoing national dialogue aimed at defusing them.

The 20-year-old sister of a Hamas militant was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Yunis Sunday, although it was not immediately clear who opened fire on the vehicle she was travelling in.

Her brother Nidal and her husband Yasser were also wounded in the attack which followed clashes in the town of Rafah further south in which two Hamas sympathisers and one Fatah supporter were injured.

Three Palestinians were killed and four wounded Sunday in a clash between Hamas militiamen and the members of one family, medical and security service officials said.

Witnesses said the clash involved relatives of Khader Afana, who was killed by Hamas militants on Friday. The identity of the victims was not immediately known.

The clash took place in the Chatti refugee camp in Gaza City, where the Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniya has a home.

Al-Aqsa's declaration came with Hamas under mounting pressure to accept a document seeking to end the deadly feuding and financial torment as Abbas prepared to deliver on a threat to put it to a referendum.

Hamas and Fatah have been locked in a power struggle since the Islamists ousted the long-ruling Fatah party in parliamentary elections in January.

Much of their rivalry since Hamas's election victory has centered around control of the Fatah-dominated security services which remain the remit of Abbas as president of the Palestinian Authority.

On the ground, tensions spiralled after Hamas deployed a controversial paramilitary force in the Gaza Strip on May 17 which became ensnared in clashes with regular security detachments and Fatah loyalists.

The unit was recalled by the Hamas government from Gaza streets on May 26, but detachments were quickly redeployed the following day.

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