MIDDLE EAST:ISRAEL YESTERDAY returned to Gaza 32 members of a clan who fled the Strip after clashes with Hamas police which left nine dead and 90 injured.
More than 180 men from the Fatah-affiliated Hilles clan entered Israel on Saturday at two crossing points after Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, prime minister Salam Fayyad and Egypt asked for them to be given sanctuary and medical treatment.
But the Palestinian leaders later reconsidered and requested that Israel send the men home.
Fighting erupted after Hamas security men went to the house of clan chief Ahmad Hilles in Gaza city to arrest 11 clansmen accused by Hamas of involvement in a July 25th bombing that killed five members of the Hamas military wing and a four-year-old girl. The police took action after the clan broke a commitment to hand over the suspects to an intermediary who would transfer them to the police for investigation. Wanted men often take refuge with the clan.
Hamas said clansmen fired mortars and rocket-propelled grenades at policemen when they entered the quarter. Once the exchanges had stopped, policemen collected large quantities of arms and explosives.
Ahmad Hilles, who was wounded, is Fatah's top military commander in Gaza. He assumed the post in June 2007 when fighters loyal to Fatah's former Gaza security boss, Muhammad Dahlan, Hilles's rival, were expelled. The removal of Hilles from the strip and the arrest by Hamas of senior Fatah political figures since the bombing has temporarily decapitated Fatah in Gaza.
Jabr Wishah, of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, said the situation in Gaza City could spiral into violence at any moment.
Analyst Lamis Andonis said the fighting was "extremely dangerous" and could spark an all-out Fatah-Hamas confrontation which could spread to the West Bank, "especially if the Gaza clashes spark tribal retribution between the Hilles clan and the clans of Hamas security officers".
