Gunbattle at Gaza hospital kills 1, truce in tatters

Gaza, Dec 19: Hamas policemen and forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas fought gunbattles at Gaza's main hospital today, killing one person and wounding 11 in a further sign that a day-old truce was in tatters.

Internal Palestinian fighting -- the worst in a decade -- has escalated since Abbas called yesterday for early elections in an attempt to break a political deadlock with the Hamas government. Hamas has accused Abbas of launching a ''coup''.

Witnesses and rival factions said a Hamas policeman was killed in the gun fight at the entrance and inside the compound of the Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.

It was not immediately clear if any civilians were wounded.

The gunbattle began when Hamas police tried to detain Fatah security men, who belong to an intelligence service loyal to Abbas, on suspicion they had been involved in earlier clashes.

While neither side has declared Sunday night's truce dead, there has been a spate of gun fights and kidnappings of rival activists since then. Most hostages have been swapped.

Abbas told visiting British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Monday he was committed to early elections but left the door open for the formation of a Fatah-Hamas coalition with a ''technocrat'' cabinet that could satisfy Western countries.

The fighting has renewed fears of civil war in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank.

Peaceful Pressure

The West has sought to bolster Abbas, who favours a two-state solution to end conflict with Israel.

Hamas, an Islamist group advocating Israel's destruction, has struggled to govern since taking office in March under the weight of Western sanctions imposed because of its refusal to recognise the Jewish state and renounce violence.

In Damascus, exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal said the election call was illegal and that Hamas would take practical steps to stop early elections taking place using ''peaceful, popular pressure -- not with violence'', the BBC reported.

Hamas and Fatah tried for months to form a unity government to end a power struggle, but the talks foundered.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, in an apparent effort to shore up Abbas, said after meeting Blair that Israel planned to set up a joint committee with Palestinian officials that would discuss releasing Palestinians held in Israeli jails.

A major amnesty could help Israel recover a soldier whose abduction by Gazan gunmen in June pushed Israeli-Palestinian relations to a new low in more than 6 years of fighting.

While a Gaza truce declared by Abbas and Olmert last month has largely held, Israel has kept up military action in the West Bank.

Israeli commandos shot dead a Fatah militant in the West Bank city of Nablus today, witnesses said. An Israeli army spokeswoman said the militant tried to evade arrest. A second wanted militant was detained, she said.

Reuters