Hamas and Fatah have built a joint operations room in Gaza in a bid to maintain the ceasefire declared by the two organizations.
The Palestinian public was urged to inform the operations room on any violation of the ceasefire agreement, including cases of barriers being set up, of weapons being carried around or of gunmen taking over buildings and posts.
| Saturday's Clashes |
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| Hamas destroys Fatah security headquarters / Ali Waked |
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After Fatah forces raid and vandalize Hamas government office building, Hamas gunmen set fire to headquarters of Fatah’s Preventative Security Forces, burning it to the ground. Gun battles continue throughout Gaza, after brief Hamas-Fatah truce collapses |
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The two movements announced that they plan to maintain the ceasefire agreement reached Saturday with Egyptian mediation. Saturday's agreement is the ninth deal between the two organizations in the past several months, and Palestinian Authority officials expressed their hopes that it would last at least until the meeting scheduled to take place Tuesday between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas politburo chief Khaled Mashaal.
PA officials hoped that the meeting would lead to a breakthrough in the talks on the establishment of a national unity government and would prevent Abbas from declaring early elections, as many in Fatah and the Palestinian public have demanded.
Abbas met over the weekend with members of the Central Elections Committee, who briefed him on the preparations for elections, should the talks on unity fail by the weekend.
Meanwhile, and in spite of the truce agreement, violations of the deal and exchanges of fire between the parties continued. A Fatah-affiliated national security officer was shot in the head and Hamas’ military wing, Izz al-Din al-Qassam, announced that it had apprehended Sharf Dahlan, Fatah official Mohammad Dahlan’s nephew, and his office manager in Gaza on Saturday.
Dahlan would apparently be used as a bargaining chip in negotiations with Palestinian security establishments.
Another officer was also kidnapped and mortar shells landed in the security headquarters compound, near Abbas' office in Gaza.
Fatah accused Hamas of being responsible for the clashes, claiming that Hamas' political leadership had no influence on its activists. Seventeen injured people arrived at Gaza's hospitals after the ceasefire between the two factions came into force.
At least 27 people have been killed since the clashes began on Thursday, most of them Fatah members. More than 280 were injured. Dozens of the injured are still in serious to critical condition.
Meanwhile, Tawfik Tirawi, head of the PA intelligence service in the West Bank, threw his show at senior Fatah official Jibril Rajoub during a Fatah Council meeting Saturday. The council was discussing the political situation in the PA.
The incident took place after Rajoub attempted to defend Hamas' stance following the assassination attempt of Tarek Abu Rajab, commander of the PA's General Intelligence Service in the Gaza Strip several days ago.
Rajoub accused Tirawi and his people of trying to move the conflict between the factions from the Strip to the West Bank.
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