Palestinian factions agree to talks in Mecca

MIDDLE EAST:Saudi Arabia yesterday invited feuding Palestinian factions to urgent talks in Islam's holy city of Mecca to try to end the fiercest internal fighting since Hamas's election victory a year ago.

Both sides agreed to attend the meeting, but no date was set as the death toll from three days of Gaza infighting rose to 23 with the killing of a Hamas police force member.

Spiralling violence has derailed unity talks between the ruling Islamist Hamas movement and President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction.

In the latest in a string of tit-for-tat abductions, a Hamas commander, a Fatah intelligence officer and a local Fatah municipal official were taken captive by rival forces in southern Gaza, increasing tensions despite the promised intervention of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.

"I invite them all . . . for an urgent meeting in brotherly Saudi Arabia at the sacred house of God to discuss disputes in a neutral [ environment] without intervention from any other side," the Saudi monarch said in an open letter.

The Hamas-led government, which defeated the once dominant Fatah in elections a year ago, said that it had accepted the king's invitation.

Ahmed Abdel-Rahman, a senior Fatah official and an Abbas adviser, also welcomed the invitation and said: "We are ready to go to the kingdom and to start talks."

It was not immediately clear when the talks would begin.

"I call on my brothers, the Palestinian people, represented by their leaders, to put an immediate end to this tragedy and abide by righteousness," King Abdullah said, calling the fighting a "grave crime".

The sound of exploding grenades and automatic fire echoed in Gaza City as gun battles raged throughout the day. Fighting also broke out in southern Gaza and at least three men were wounded following the abduction of a Hamas militant.

Residents said that some families were evacuating homes near the fighting. Others were keeping children inside and staying away from windows, fearing sniper fire.

Schools in the narrow, densely populated territory, which is home to some 1.5 million Palestinians, were closed yesterday and only a few shops opened.

"We appeal to all our people, you have to preserve national unity. The language of dialogue and reason must prevail," the Hamas prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, said at the start of an emergency cabinet meeting.

Mr Haniyeh urged Mr Abbas to pull Fatah gunmen off the streets. But Fatah spokesman Tawfiq Abu Khoussa said that the Hamas-led executive force was the "major element in tensions and in the continuation of sabotage and killing".

At least 54 Palestinians have been killed in the bloodshed which erupted after Mr Abbas called last month for early presidential and parliamentary elections following inconclusive talks with Hamas on a unity government.

Hamas parliamentarians said yesterday that Mr Abbas's election call amounted to "a coup against the results of democracy".

"National dialogue cannot continue with leaders of the coup or those who support them ," one member of the parliament commented.

Hamas has struggled to govern since taking office in March under the weight of US-backed sanctions imposed over its refusal to recognise Israel, renounce violence and abide by interim peace deals with the Jewish state.

In the latest skirmishes, Hamas gunmen and members of the Fatah-dominated preventive security service clashed outside the main Fatah headquarters in Gaza, witnesses said.

A bomb blast damaged the home of a bodyguard of Mohammed Dahlan, a senior Fatah figure.

Two people, including a 16-year-old youth, died in clashes in Khan Younis yesterday, hospital officials said.