Deaths of policemen in Gaza threaten to upset cease-fire

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Hamas gunmen killed two Palestinian policemen loyal to the rival Fatah movement early Wednesday, hours after the sides agreed to a new cease-fire meant to end more than a week of factional fighting.

Fatah officials condemned the killing but said they remained committed to the truce, and Gaza City remained largely calm at midday -- a dramatic contrast to the pitched battles that raged in city streets a day earlier. However, hundreds of people went on a violent rampage at the policemen's funeral, raising the prospect of renewed fighting.

Fatah spokesman Tawfiq Abu Khoussa said the policeman, cousins in their early 20s, were killed when their vehicle was attacked during an overnight patrol. Six other people in their car were wounded, he said.

"They came under fire from an ambush of masked gunmen affiliated with Hamas," Abu Khoussa said.

He said Fatah considered the shooting a violation of the cease-fire, but would still honor the truce, announced just before midnight by President Mahmoud Abbas.

Fatah 'still committed'

"Fatah is still committed to the agreement and to the announcement by President Abbas last night," he said.

Hamas' Web site described the fatal shooting as "an intense gunbattle ... between Fatah and the [Hamas] executive unit." It said "the identity and the affiliation of the people killed is still unknown."

No peace at funeral

About 300 people attended the officers' funeral Wednesday. Many of the men were armed, shooting in the air and calling for revenge.

At one point, the funeral procession passed by the house of Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar, a top Hamas official, and mourners shouted epithets. Zahar apparently was not in the area at the time.

The crowd later went on a rampage on a main Gaza road on the way to the cemetery to bury the bodies, shooting at the local electricity company building after seeing Hamas gunmen on the roof, witnesses and a security official said. The crowd also torched four cars resembling the type of vehicle used by Hamas.

The Hamas gunmen on the roof did not fire back, the witnesses and security official said.

Two TV cameramen filming the incident said they were roughed up by protesters, who also confiscated and smashed their videotapes.

Elsewhere in Gaza, life appeared to be returning to normal. Cars and donkey carts were back on the streets, and people were running errands.

Despite the signs of normalcy, the situation remained tense. Gaza's three universities and schools across the coastal strip were closed Wednesday after schoolchildren were caught in the crossfire the previous day. Many parents kept their children indoors, fearing renewed gunbattles.

Streets around the beachside residence and office of Abbas were closed, with security guards manning roadblocks. Meanwhile, black-clad guards of Hamas' militia were posted on the rooftop of a complex of ministries run by Hamas.

In a show of unity, the families of two men killed in the fighting -- one Hamas, the other Fatah -- held a joint news conference urging calm and Palestinian unity.

"We are prepared to forgive ... for the sake of our people," said Mohammed Harazin, whose son, a pro-Fatah intelligence officer, was abducted Tuesday and killed by Hamas.

Tuesday's fighting was some of the heaviest yet in the latest round of violence. But late in the evening, Abbas announced a new truce deal.

The agreement came shortly after Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas appealed for calm in a televised speech, urging the Palestinians to band together to fight the common enemy: Israel.

In Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert expressed hope that the cease-fire would stick, making his first public comments on the Palestinian crisis.

"We are not happy about the developments in the Palestinian Authority," Olmert told a news conference. "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 fighting began last week after months of political tensions between Hamas and Abbas' Fatah movement. Hamas, which is committed to Israel's destruction, defeated Fatah, which favors peace talks with the Jewish state, in legislative elections early this year.

The violence intensified after Abbas announced Saturday that he was seeking new elections to end the political deadlock, a direct challenge to Hamas' control of the Cabinet and parliament. In all, 16 people have died in the clashes, one of the deadliest bouts of Palestinian infighting.