MIDDLE EAST:Jubilant Hamas militants cemented their domination over Gaza yesterday but appeared to make conciliatory overtures to their Fatah opponents after a week of intense fighting that has effectively broken Palestine in two.
Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader in Gaza, called for new negotiations with the Fatah leader and Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, and urged calm from his own gunmen after they had routed Fatah rivals and embarked on a wave of looting in Fatah offices and homes in the Gaza Strip. Hamas also released 10 senior Fatah officials captured during five days of clashes that killed more than 100 people.
Mr Haniyeh, sacked as government chief on Thursday as the Hamas revolt in Gaza climaxed, insisted he was still the legitimate prime minister on the basis of elections last year, which Hamas dominated. "No internal formula in the Palestinian territories will hold without national agreement and without respecting the legitimacy of the election," he said.
Fifty miles away in his West Bank seat of power, Mr Abbas presented a defiant front to the movement that has demolished his authority in Gaza, ignoring Mr Haniyeh's claim to office and naming a replacement prime minister, Salam Fayyad, a moderate technocrat respected in the West.
Hamas denounced the move as a political coup. But the movement has yet to indicate how it will exercise its new power. It is not even clear how much of this week's violence was supported by Mr Haniyeh, or whether hardline elements in the movement precipitated the clash.
All crossings out of Gaza into Israel and Egypt remain closed and the Egyptian diplomatic mission in Gaza pulled out yesterday.
Under the state of emergency imposed by Mr Abbas, a new government could last for 30 days. It would then need parliamentary approval to continue, or Mr Abbas could appoint another prime minister and cabinet for another 30 days.
Western governments, including the US and the EU, pledged their support for Mr Abbas, speaking of him as a moderate leader. Some officials hinted that Israel might unfreeze tax revenues worth hundreds of millions of dollars that it has withheld from the Palestinians. Jordan also threw its weight behind the president, as Arab foreign ministers met in Cairo to discuss the Palestinian crisis.
The events in Gaza mean Mr Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, now has no way of imposing his authority there. Images showing gunmen rifling through his offices at a ransacked compound in Gaza amply demonstrated his political emasculation.
One gunman picked up his telephone and joked that he was calling Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state. "Hello, Rice?" the gunman said. "Here we are in Abu Mazen's office. Say hello to Abu Mazen for me."
Thousands of Palestinians gathered at a rally in Gaza City in support of the Hamas takeover. Most approved of the defeat of Fatah, but many were concerned about the future. "I worry about the economy and freedoms under Hamas control," said Mohammad Thaher (29), who owns a restaurant. "I'm worried they might impose Islamic restrictions."
In Ramallah, Mr Abbas's supporters put on a show of force yesterday to demonstrate that Fatah and the Palestinian Authority still controlled the West Bank. Members of the authority's security forces stood in pick-up trucks holding their rifles across their chests and drove slowly through the quiet streets. On Thursday night in the West Bank, Hamas members were arrested.
Ziad Abu Ein, a Fatah leader in Ramallah, predicted that anti-Hamas forces would regroup.
"What we have witnessed is a fascist, military coup. Hamas cannot control the Palestinian people with their machine guns. They may have taken a few government buildings, but Fatah and the Palestine Liberation Organisation still has the people in Gaza," he said. "In a few days there will be a new uprising in Gaza when people discover the truth of Hamas. There will be a big fight."