Officials working to shore up tottering Gaza truce (Roundup)

Dec 18, 2006, 22:19 GMT

Gaza - Officials from Palestinian militant organizations were working Monday night to shore up a tottering day-old truce aimed at ending bitter factional violence which has claimed the lives of at least 11 people and wounded dozens more.

The armed wing of the ruling Hamas organization said that as a 'goodwill gesture' it was releasing a former minister from the rival Fatah party, who it had kidnapped earlier Monday evening.

Sofian Abu Zaida, former minister of prisoners affairs, was the 14th person kidnapped since the truce came into effect Sunday night. He was snatched after a day of sporadic gunfights in the Gaza Strip, which culminated when Hamas gunmen killed a 21-year-old Palestinian who was in a crowd protesting another abduction, that of the brother of a Fatah legislator.

The violence, in the offing since since Hamas and Fatah failed to agree on a unity government, erupted one week ago after gunmen ambushed the car of a senior Fatah security official in Gaza, killing his three sons aged 4 to 9 as well as a bodyguard.

Tensions peaked over the weekend following a speech by President Mahmoud Abbas, who is also the Fatah leader, in which he called for new presidential and parliamentary elections as a way out of the unity government impasse.

Hamas rejected the call. The group formed a government in March after it defeated Fatah in the January elections, and has rejected Abbas' unity government conditions that it moderate its hardline anti-Israel stance.

On Monday, Abbas offered Hamas one last chance to sit with the Fatah party in a national unity government, but vowed to go ahead with a new poll if he had no other option.

'We will go for early elections, both parliamentary and presidential,' Abbas told a joint news conference in Ramallah with visiting British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

'Nothing will stop us,' he warned. 'We would like to test the will of the Palestinian people - do they still trust the people they chose?'

He then added that forming a unity government of technocrats between Hamas and Fatah remained his preferred option.

Abbas hopes a unity government which includes his more moderate Fatah movement will cause the international community to end crippling economic sanctions imposed on the Palestinian government since Hamas took over in March.

Hamas has refused international demands to recognize Israel, renounce violence and honour past Israeli-Palestinian agreements.

Blair gave Abbas his firm backing, calling him a leader of 'moderation and tolerance,' willing to 'shoulder his responsibilities,' and praising his speech from Saturday as 'landmark' and 'very important.'

The British prime minister later told a news conference in Jerusalem with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that Hamas had to accept the two-state solution - an Israeli and Palestinian state living side-by-side - if it wanted help from the international community.