Hamas raids Fatah stronghold in Gaza, 20 Fatah men fleeing into Israel

Islamist group' security forces raid stronghold of Fatah-allied Hilles clan in Gaza City. In retaliation, masked Fatah gunmen in West Bank briefly seized Hamas-linked university professor in West Bank. Earlier five Palestinians killed in smuggling tunnel's collapse under Gaza-Egypt border

security forces asserted control in a stronghold of political rival Fatah on Saturday, following a day of battles with mortars and machine guns, ending with the surrender of the Fatah-linked Hilles clan.

  Four people were killed and at least 80 others were injured, including one critically, during the clashes. Among those killed were Hamas operatives, and the injured included 12 children and a woman.

Sources in Gaza said following the clashes Hamas gunmen fired mortars at Palestinians who were trying to escape to the Gaza-Israel border fence, near Kibbutz Nahal Oz. Other Gazans turned themselves in to Hamas forces, the sources said.

 

 

More than two dozen members of the Hilles clan who fled the fighting were allowed through a Gaza crossing into Israel, Israeli military officials said.

A clan leader and senior Fatah member, Ahmed Hilles, was among those who had reached Israel, according to a Palestinian official close to the events, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Loud explosions and gunfire could be heard throughout the day across Gaza City. Hamas said it arrested 15 people, including 10 who had tried to flee disguised as women, and confiscated weapons and

Hamas officials shut down a radio station affiliated with the small Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, saying that the station was reporting "lies and rumors and inciting sedition," the group said.

 

A senior Abbas aide in the West Bank, Tayeb Abdel Rahim, denounced Gaza's Hamas rulers as "the new Mongols." But in act of goodwill, Hamas released 10 Fatah leaders after Egyptian mediation.