Internal Palestinian tension is spiralling to unprecedented heights after violent clashes in Gaza yesterday, sparked by the US-led attacks on Afghanistan. Policemen from Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority, which is siding firmly with the US in its anti-terror assault, shot dead at least three supporters of the Islamic fundamentalist group Hamas, which is identifying enthusiastically with Osama bin Laden.
Dozens more Hamas supporters were injured, and 10 policemen were also hurt in the violence which erupted when about 3,000 Hamas supporters marched through Gaza City and defied Palestinian Authority orders to disperse. Many of the marchers carried portraits of bin Laden, and chanted support for him.
There were further clashes last night in Gaza's Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood, and two Palestinian Authority police positions were attacked. The passion of the demonstrators - most of whom had set out from the local Islamic University, a Hamas stronghold - had clearly been stirred by bin Laden's declaration that there would be no peace for the US until Israel had been driven out of the "lands of Mohammed".
Palestinian Authority officials said their forces opened fire after masked gunmen among the demonstrators shot at them. The killings were the first of Palestinians by their own police force during more than a year of Intifada violence, and underlined Mr Arafat's determination to stand firmly with the US-led coalition, and to clamp down on public displays of backing for bin Laden and anti-American sentiment.
Emphasising that stance, his Information Minister Mr Yasser Abed-Rabbo yesterday firmly distanced the Palestinian Authority from any support for the September 11th attacks and rejected bin Laden's attempted embrace of the Palestinian cause. While Israel was responsible for "oppression, terrorism and killing in Palestine", said Mr Abed-Rabbo, "this does not justify or give a cover for anybody to kill or terrorise civilians, in Washington and New York or any other place. We don't want crimes committed in the name of Palestine."
That position is at acute odds with the Hamas stance. A spokesman for the group in Gaza, Mr Abdel Aziz Rantisi, asserted yesterday that "bin Laden does not practise terrorism. The terrorist is the Zionist enemy". Hamas leaders are also describing the US assault as "aggression against Islam," and using the argument to challenge Mr Arafat's authority, protesting his recent arrests of Islamic militants and his efforts to enforce an Intifada ceasefire.
Mr Arafat was visiting Cairo for talks with President Hosni Mubarak yesterday, but hurried back to Gaza to try and resolve the conflict, which has potential to escalate into Palestinian civil war.