Two killed in Gaza fighting, tensions spiral

GAZA, Jan 3 (Reuters) Forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the Hamas government fought fierce gunbattles in Gaza today, killing a woman and wounding nine people, as simmering internal tensions threatened to erupt.

The clash in the Jabalya refugee camp in northern Gaza came after unknown gunmen killed a member of Abbas's Fatah faction and a car carrying Hamas security officers was ambushed.

The woman was wounded after getting caught in the crossfire of the gunbattle and died in hospital, medical officials said. Most of the other wounded were combatants, they said.

Fatah and Hamas declared a truce in December to end weeks of deadly violence which escalated into running street battles in Gaza after Abbas called for early parliamentary and presidential elections to break a political deadlock with Hamas.

Hamas condemned Abbas's move as a coup to oust it less than a year after it surprised Fatah to win a parliamentary ballot.

Fatah sources blamed Hamas militants for the shooting of the Fatah militant. Residents said he was on a rooftop in the town of Beit Lahiya with other Fatah gunmen when he was shot.

Hamas officials were not immediately available to comment but blamed Fatah for opening fire on a vehicle carrying members of a Hamas-led police force in the area.

Two policemen were wounded, one seriously, the Hamas police force said. Fatah has not commented.

Gunmen also abducted four Fatah members from the streets, witnesses said. Fatah blamed Hamas, which declined to comment.

While Abbas has called for fresh elections, he has left the door open to talks with Hamas on forging a unity government that Palestinians hope will lead to the lifting of Western sanctions imposed on the Hamas administration.

Abbas has not set a date for elections. Hamas says early polls would be illegal.

On top of the internal chaos, general law and order has deteriorated in Gaza in recent months.

Palestinian colleagues of a Peruvian photographer abducted by gunmen this week demanded his release today, saying the 50-year-old's life was in danger because he needed medicine for heart disease.

Sakher Abu El-Awn, Gaza office manager of the French news agency Agence France-Presse, said Jaime Razuri, who was seized outside the AFP Gaza City office on Monday, was taking several types of medication, including some for the heart problems.

''We believe his life is at serious risk and we urge his captors to release him immediately,'' Abu El-Awn told Reuters.

Razuri's kidnapping is the latest in a spate of abductions of foreign journalists and aid workers in Gaza in the past year. All have been freed unharmed, most after one or two days in captivity.

No one has claimed responsibility for Razuri's abduction.

REUTERS PB KN2100