Fatah faction Arabs opened fire on uniformed Palestinian Authority militiamen yesterday, following claims by a local Fatah warlord that police shot him in the leg for no reason whatsoever. Earlier, the warlord, Mohammed Abu Arraj, also precipitated a gun battle when he refused to turn over his weapon to PA security officers. PA forces restored calm yesterday, and it has been reported that, despite the flying bullets, there were no injuries.
The most serious armed attack by Arab gunmen on PA leaders occurred in November 2004, when unidentified gunmen opened fire at the entourage of newly instated PLO leader Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) and Gaza strongman Mohammed Dahlan. The apparent assassination attempt took the lives of two people and an unspecified number of others were injured. The leaders Abu Mazen and Dahlan were not hurt.
The PA's uniformed militias face not only politically-motivated armed rivals, but also criminal gangs which have been challenging the regime's authority. In Tulkarem, shots were fired at the local police station, PA officials said. PA security officers searched for the perpetrators, suspected car thieves and weapons dealers.
In addition to the frontal challenges to the PA, sectarian violence between Christians and Muslims has broken out in recent weeks in Bethlehem. Dozens of Christians have been injured by Muslims and PA gunmen in clashes sparked by the kidnapping of a Christian girl by a local Muslim man, who is also a PA policeman. The girl, an American citizen, was released thanks to US diplomatic intervention.
PA control suffered another blow, when the Hamas terrorist gang, which won a large number of the PA local council seats in last week's elections, turned to the government of Egypt over the weekend requesting Cairo's intervention to end "provocative practices that Fatah supporters engaged in to protest the results of the latest municipal elections." The Hamas leadership turned to Egypt, it said, to get its help "to preserve the unity of the Palestinian people."
The most serious armed attack by Arab gunmen on PA leaders occurred in November 2004, when unidentified gunmen opened fire at the entourage of newly instated PLO leader Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) and Gaza strongman Mohammed Dahlan. The apparent assassination attempt took the lives of two people and an unspecified number of others were injured. The leaders Abu Mazen and Dahlan were not hurt.
The PA's uniformed militias face not only politically-motivated armed rivals, but also criminal gangs which have been challenging the regime's authority. In Tulkarem, shots were fired at the local police station, PA officials said. PA security officers searched for the perpetrators, suspected car thieves and weapons dealers.
In addition to the frontal challenges to the PA, sectarian violence between Christians and Muslims has broken out in recent weeks in Bethlehem. Dozens of Christians have been injured by Muslims and PA gunmen in clashes sparked by the kidnapping of a Christian girl by a local Muslim man, who is also a PA policeman. The girl, an American citizen, was released thanks to US diplomatic intervention.
PA control suffered another blow, when the Hamas terrorist gang, which won a large number of the PA local council seats in last week's elections, turned to the government of Egypt over the weekend requesting Cairo's intervention to end "provocative practices that Fatah supporters engaged in to protest the results of the latest municipal elections." The Hamas leadership turned to Egypt, it said, to get its help "to preserve the unity of the Palestinian people."