MIDDLE EAST:Clashes in Gaza yesterday killed a Hamas policeman and a member of the Fatah-affiliated Dugmush clan, raising the toll to eight dead and more than 70 wounded over the 24-hour new year holiday.
Fighting began on Monday shortly after an address by President Mahmoud Abbas as firework displays and celebratory gunfire marked the 43rd anniversary of the establishment of Fatah by Yasser Arafat and a group of Palestinian exiles living in Kuwait.
Mr Abbas, one of the founding fathers of the movement, offered to open a dialogue with Hamas in a nationally televised address. He called on Hamas "to open a new page in relations within our Palestinian home" but conditioned this on Hamas ceding control of the Gaza Strip where it seized power six months ago. He also renewed a call for early elections and pledged that a fresh poll would "be the produce of a deep and brotherly understanding". He urged all factions "to study this alternative and not to rush, as usual, to reject it".
But Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum promptly rejected the proposal. He said Mr Abbas' speech "is full of incitement and divisive words. There is no new initiative or practical step that can pave the road to an immediate dialogue . . . Abbas is betting on the American-Zionist project [ US-sponsored negotiations with Israel] and not on dialogue with Hamas." He said Hamas is ready and willing to "restore dialogue with Fatah without conditions".
Through intermediaries Hamas has also suggested to Israel that it would agree to a "tahdiye", a short-term cessation of rocket and mortar attacks on Israeli troops and towns if Israel ends incursions and halts assassinations. Hamas did not make the lifting of Israel's siege of the impoverished Strip a condition of the truce which could be translated into a long-term "hudna" through dialogue between Israel and Hamas.
This round of violence was the worst since November when eight Palestinians were killed and 85 wounded after Hamas forces opened fire on another Fatah rally. The pro-Fatah gunman killed yesterday was Muhammad Dugmush, a member of the clan responsible for kidnapping BBC correspondent Alan Johnston.
