Hamas seizes second Fatah base

Smoke rises over Gaza today.

June 14, 2007

GAZA CITY (CNN) -- As Hamas fighters continue to seize control of key Fatah security installations across Gaza, a Hamas representative Thursday told CNN that the group's goal is not to take control of the Palestinian territory but to control rogue Fatah forces in Gaza. (Watch: Hamas spokesman Osama Hamdan speaks to CNN )

The escalating violence has prompted the European Union to suspend humanitarian aid to the region and could result in a dissolution of the Hamas-led Palestinian unity government.

Hamas forces Thursday overtook the Preventive Security headquarters in Gaza City, hoisting the green Hamas flag atop the building that was once under the control of Fatah.

Hamas fighters captured the second of four major Fatah command centers in Gaza City on Thursday afternoon, planting the Islamic group's green flag on the roof of the intelligence services building and growing nearer to a complete conquest of the Gaza Strip, an Associated Press report said.

Earlier in the day, Hamas overran the Preventive Security building, and witnesses, a doctor and Fatah officials said several vanquished Fatah fighters were shot in the head gangland-style, the report added.

Video shown on Hamas' al-Aqsa TV showed a group of shirtless men with their hands in the air being marched down a Gaza City street at gunpoint -- one man wearing only his underwear.

Unconfirmed reports from Fatah officials that some of the men, who are aligned with Fatah, were executed in street outside the Preventive Security headquarters, were denied by a Hamas representative who spoke to CNN from Beirut.

The Associated Press also reported that an explosion rocked Gaza City on Thursday afternoon.

Plumes of white smoke rose from the direction of a security post. Fatah security officials said forces positioned at the post redeployed elsewhere, and blew it up as they left rather than let Hamas take it over. Hamas forces already control areas north and south of Gaza's largest city and are working to remove the remaining Fatah strongholds in the area.

Hamas takeover

A day after it established a military zone in northern Gaza, Hamas took control of the southern Gaza town of Rafah on Wednesday which lies near a key border crossing with Egypt, Palestinian security sources told CNN on Thursday.

The Rafah crossing, which has been closed since Saturday, is jointly monitored by Israel via closed circuit TV, Palestinian Fatah forces, and European Union monitors. Following the border's closing, the EU monitors relocated to the Israeli city of Ashkelon, a spokeswoman told CNN.

After Hamas won control of the Palestinian government during legislative elections last year, the former ruling Fatah party continued to control of security forces in Gaza. Sharing that control under the Hamas-Fatah unity government formed earlier this year has been a major stumbling block.

Now that unity government may be dissolved under a proposal being considered by Fatah leader and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, according to a source close to Abbas.

Abbas is scheduled to announce his intentions in a public statement later on Thursday, Fatah sources told CNN. (Read: Officials say infighting will cause chaos)

Fatah's Central Committee voted Tuesday night to suspend its participation in the Hamas-led unity government if the fighting continues.

The unity government was an attempt to stop previous fighting in Gaza, as well as to restart international funding -- particularly from the United States and the EU -- that was cut off after Hamas took power last year.

Osama Hamdan, Hamas' representative in Lebanon, told CNN that the current conflict is not "between Hamas and Fatah or even a problem with Abu Mazen (Abbas)."

"The problem was with some officers in the (Fatah-controlled) security forces who were against the law, and they worked hard to undermine the security plan and the national unity government."

Hamdan said the rogue elements targeted by Hamas have been free to create their own fiefdoms in Gaza under the previous Fatah leaders.

"We want the security forces to be under the law, not to create their own laws, as what was happening in the past 10 years," he said.

Hamdan said Hamas acted because no one in Fatah -- not even Abbas -- has control of the lawless forces.

"Someone has to control the situation and bring them to the law," he said.

Hamdan denied reports that his forces are executing members of Fatah in the streets of Gaza.

"That happened to our members on the hands of some well-known officers," he said. "I believe they are trying to blame us by the things which they have done."

Suspension of aid

The European Commission, which is the executive branch of the EU, announced Thursday that it is suspending $112 million in aid for the Palestinian territories as a result of the escalating violence.

In addition, the EC announced it has suspended all 16 of its relief projects in Gaza for the first time, due to the lack of security.

Louis Michel, the European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, said he hoped the projects "can resume very soon."

On Wednesday, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) also suspended many of its operations in Gaza after two of its Palestinian staff members were killed in the fighting.
Hamas overran Fatah positions in northern Gaza on Tuesday and declared all villages and towns north of Gaza City -- including Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahiya and the Jabaliya refugee camp -- a closed military area

Hamas militants are demanding residents in the area hand over their weapons to Hamas by 7 p.m. Friday (noon ET/1600 GMT).

At least 70 Palestinians have been killed since the Palestinian-on-Palestinian violence escalated four days ago.

Israel has expressed concern about the possibility that Gaza could be solely controlled by Hamas.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Tuesday if Hamas gains control of Gaza it would have "regional implications" and he called for an international force to patrol the Gaza-Egypt border to prevent Hamas radicals from importing new and more powerful weapons into Gaza.