Leaders of Palestinian factions including rivals Fatah and Hamas pledged on Tuesday to refrain from violence in settling Palestinian problems after a firefight between Hamas activists and Palestinian police left three dead.
Farouk Kaddoumi, a leader of Fatah - the ruling faction of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said the exiled leaders of Palestinian groups agreed in Damascus that dialogue should be the only way to solve their disputes.
Kaddoumi said the leaders agreed to “call all Palestinian powers and factions to ban the use of weapons to solve internal differences” and to “refrain from all forms political and media provocations that can harm the interests of our people and their national unity.”
Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshaal acknowledged the call, but defended his militant group’s right to resist Israeli occupation and to have a role in Palestinian political life at the same time.
“We refuse any inclination toward internal feuding because our fixed national principles set Palestinian blood as a taboo,” he said after the meeting that also comprised less senior leaders of key factions - the Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command.
On Sunday, a police commander and two civilians were killed in firefights between policemen and Hamas gunmen. Fifty people were wounded when militants tried to storm a police station shortly afterwards.
Palestinian policemen stormed into Gaza’s parliament building on Monday to demand a crackdown on militants, and deputies called on President Abbas to sack the cabinet for failing to stamp out chaos in the streets.
The protesters said police were badly outgunned by militant groups like Hamas and the Palestinian Authority seemed to lack the will to impose order. Abbas, citing a civil war risk, aims to co-opt, rather than try to crush, grassroots militant groups.
The two challenges highlighted Abbas’s uphill struggle to impose law and order in the Gaza Strip to make it the proving ground of a future Palestinian state after Israel’s withdrawal of settlers and soldiers completed last month.
“We are on the verge of civil war if the situation remains out of control,” said Qaddoura Fares, a reformist legislator with Abbas’s mainstream Fatah movement.
Parliament voted 43-5 with five abstentions in favor of a committee report demanding that Abbas form a new government within two weeks or face a no-confidence vote.
“What is happening is chaos and irresponsible,” Abbas said on Palestinian television on Monday. “People are saying this is a test for a Palestinian state. If we continue on this path these people will say we don’t deserve one.”
Farouk Kaddoumi, a leader of Fatah - the ruling faction of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said the exiled leaders of Palestinian groups agreed in Damascus that dialogue should be the only way to solve their disputes.
Kaddoumi said the leaders agreed to “call all Palestinian powers and factions to ban the use of weapons to solve internal differences” and to “refrain from all forms political and media provocations that can harm the interests of our people and their national unity.”
Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshaal acknowledged the call, but defended his militant group’s right to resist Israeli occupation and to have a role in Palestinian political life at the same time.
“We refuse any inclination toward internal feuding because our fixed national principles set Palestinian blood as a taboo,” he said after the meeting that also comprised less senior leaders of key factions - the Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command.
On Sunday, a police commander and two civilians were killed in firefights between policemen and Hamas gunmen. Fifty people were wounded when militants tried to storm a police station shortly afterwards.
Palestinian policemen stormed into Gaza’s parliament building on Monday to demand a crackdown on militants, and deputies called on President Abbas to sack the cabinet for failing to stamp out chaos in the streets.
The protesters said police were badly outgunned by militant groups like Hamas and the Palestinian Authority seemed to lack the will to impose order. Abbas, citing a civil war risk, aims to co-opt, rather than try to crush, grassroots militant groups.
The two challenges highlighted Abbas’s uphill struggle to impose law and order in the Gaza Strip to make it the proving ground of a future Palestinian state after Israel’s withdrawal of settlers and soldiers completed last month.
“We are on the verge of civil war if the situation remains out of control,” said Qaddoura Fares, a reformist legislator with Abbas’s mainstream Fatah movement.
Parliament voted 43-5 with five abstentions in favor of a committee report demanding that Abbas form a new government within two weeks or face a no-confidence vote.
“What is happening is chaos and irresponsible,” Abbas said on Palestinian television on Monday. “People are saying this is a test for a Palestinian state. If we continue on this path these people will say we don’t deserve one.”
