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Renewed Gaza factional violence | Renewed Gaza factional violence |
(about 3 hours later) | |
Eight people including at least two civilians have died in new violence in Gaza between the rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah. | |
Hamas militants besieged the home of a Fatah activist, leading to an exchange of gunfire and casualties. Groups have also seized members of rival factions. | |
This followed overnight violence which left a member of each faction dead. | |
Fatah has suspended talks due to take place on Friday with Hamas aimed at forming a coalition government. | |
"The entire dialogue could explode," Reuters news agency quoted Fatah spokesman Tawfiq Abu Khoussa as saying. "How can dialogue go on when there is a bomb underneath the table?" | |
More than 30 people have died as a result of factional tensions since mid-December. | |
The clashes came as Hamas supporters gathered to mark a year since victory in Palestinian elections. | |
Gun battle | |
The violence began overnight when a Hamas member died in what the group said was a roadside bomb attack on a convoy. | |
Divisions between the two factions run very deep | |
Hours later, a Fatah member was killed in an attack at his home. | |
Hamas militants then surrounded the home of a Fatah official who they blame for one of the killings, triggering a gun battle. | |
A spate of kidnappings has also been reported. | |
The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a Fatah-linked militant group, said it had seized a group of 24 Hamas supporters. | |
Over the past couple of weeks Gaza had actually enjoyed a lull in this kind of violence, the BBC's Alan Johnson in Gaza said. | |
The two factions had been negotiating in an effort to come together and form a new government of national unity, but Fatah has now suspended that dialogue. | |
Divisions between the parties are very deep, our correspondent says. | |
They are fuelled by bitter personal animosities and real differences over how best to confront Israel and its occupation of the Palestinian territories. |