Angry Palestinians feel truce is brittle

As a cease-fire took hold in Gaza on Wednesday after more than a week of factional fighting, residents were angry at the Palestinian gunmen and despondent about the future.

Violence can erupt again at any moment, they said, because the enmity between followers of Hamas and those loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas has only become more intense, and there's no political solution in sight.

Emotions were so pitched that hospitals couldn't place wounded from different factions in the same room for fear of clashes between their relatives. Schools and Gaza City's universities were shuttered, and gunmen guarded Hamas ministries and Abbas' seaside residence and office.

Many said it's the darkest chapter in Gaza's blood-soaked history.

"I feel bad. If I'm going to die this way, it's very stupid, by stupid people with guns, and no one cares about the civilians," said human rights lawyer Iyad Alami, who lives in the line of fire between the Hamas-controlled Foreign Ministry and Abbas' compound.

He said he and his family stay away from the windows and crawl or crouch on the floor, for fear of stray bullets.

Others said the internal fighting, which has killed 16 Palestinians, including five civilians, in the past week, is far harder to take than years of Israeli military strikes.

"I think the Israeli shelling is easier to deal with," said 13-year-old Khaled Khatib, who fled a gun battle in his neighborhood Tuesday and saw two children wounded by gunfire. "We are used to the shelling, and we know who the target is."

The factional fighting, which intensified with Abbas' weekend announcement that he is seeking new elections, has sparked a flurry of diplomatic activity. Jordan's King Abdullah has tried to mediate between Abbas, of Fatah, and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, and is also trying to arrange a summit between the Palestinian president and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Olmert commented on the Palestinian fighting for the first time Wednesday. "Mutual violence between Fatah and Hamas is not something we are happy to see. We definitely would be happy to see a cease-fire," the Israeli leader said.

Nearly 350 Palestinians have been killed in internal fighting in Gaza this year, including family feuds and gun battles between militias, according to Health Ministry officials. But the past week was the bloodiest.

It began with an ambush that killed the three young sons of an Abbas-allied intelligence officer on their way to school. The spot on Palestine Street where the children's car was riddled with bullets was still marked by wreaths on the sidewalk Wednesday.

Alami, the human rights lawyer, said his daughters, 5-year-old Mei and 9-year-old Maha, keep asking him about the shooting, as well as about gun battles that have raged around the family's high-rise apartment building in recent days.

The girls brought a photograph of the three young victims home from school, and asked to be taken to see the ambushed car, which was displayed outside Abbas' compound.

On Sunday, the family could not reach their apartment because of intense gunbattles. When Alami returned the next day, he saw that bullets had hit the area where his daughters do their homework.

In the Sheik Radwan neighborhood, a Hamas stronghold, Manar Abu Ziad, 41, carried his 3-year-old daughter Sundus in one arm and held his 6-year-old daughter Laila's hand for a dash across the street to buy pastries. Normally, he said, the girls go by themselves, but now he won't let them out of his sight.

"I'm scared. I'm worried about my children," said the unemployed laborer.

Abu Ziad said that like many Gaza families, his has supporters of both Hamas and Fatah. "I advise them not to talk about politics, to avoid confrontation," he said.

At Shifa Hospital, the biggest in Gaza, tensions are still so high that wounded from different factions cannot be placed in the same room. "Everyone has family, friends and bodyguards," said hospital spokesman Dr. Jumaa Saqqa. "We have to separate them. Otherwise there will be clashes."

Hamas' security forces took control of the hospital four months ago, at the orders of the health minister from Hamas, Bassem Naim.

On Tuesday, a two-hour gun battle raged in the hospital hallways, sparked by a confrontation between Hamas guards and escorts of an officer from the Abbas-allied intelligence service who sought treatment for a broken leg. A security officer was killed and 10 people were wounded in the fighting.

Saqqa said doctors and nurses are pushed around and threatened by nervous gunmen, and that he has repeatedly operated at gunpoint, both on victims of Israeli strikes and on those wounded in internal clashes.

Dr. Moueyia Hassanein said four ambulances have come under fire in recent days, with gunmen searching the vehicles for rival militiamen. Hassanein said if such attacks continue, he will pull ambulances off the streets in protest.

A veteran of more than two decades of strife, he said dealing with dead and wounded has never been this hard. "What makes my heart sad, what puts me in a very bad mood, is when they are shedding Palestinian blood," Hassanein said.