Battling Palestinian Factions Agree to End Hostilities

JERUSALEM, Dec. 17 -- After a day of partisan bloodshed, rival Palestinian factions agreed Sunday to stop hostilities that appeared to be pushing the territories toward a broad civil conflict.

Some held out hope that the agreement would end several days of fighting between the governing Hamas party and the Fatah movement. Running gun battles earlier Sunday in the Gaza Strip left at least two Palestinians dead.

[But violence persisted throughout the night, with Hamas and Fatah gunmen waging battles in the northern Gaza town of Jebaliya, and outside the Gaza parliament building, the Associated Press reported. Around dawn Monday, Hamas militants outside the residence of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas clashed with members of his bodyguard unit.]

In Gaza City on Sunday, gunmen opened fire on the motorcade of the Palestinian foreign minister, Mahmoud Zahar, an outspoken member of Hamas. There were no reports of injuries. The apparent ambush marked the second time in less than a week that a senior Hamas official had come under fire.

"We condemn this type of violence against our ministers," said Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman. "We are seeking the support of all Palestinians to guarantee the safety of our people."

Hours later, a mortar attack on the presidential compound in the Gaza Strip wounded five people.

The gunfire Sunday came a day after Abbas, a leader of the secular Fatah movement, announced his decision to call for early general elections. It has been less than a year since the last national vote.

The elections, which would include his own office, are Abbas's latest attempt to end a political standoff in the territories that has inflamed partisan strife.

Abbas's Fatah faction lost parliamentary elections in January to Hamas, a radical Islamic movement classified as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel.

International donor nations that supply nearly half the Palestinian Authority's roughly $2 billion annual operating budget have cut off aid to the government until Hamas recognizes Israel, renounces violence and agrees to abide by previously signed agreements backed by Fatah.

The Hamas leadership has refused to do so during months of talks over the formation of a national unity government, which Abbas said in his national address Saturday remained his preferred way to end the crisis. Barhoum said Sunday that those talks, which collapsed earlier this month, would begin again soon.

Zahar, a surgeon by training, is a Hamas hard-liner whom the Israeli government has tried to assassinate.

Following the ambush of Zahar's motorcade, shots were fired Sunday at Abbas's presidential compound in Gaza City, although he was not there at the time. Not long after, several mortar rounds were fired at the complex, with one hitting a private home and another landing inside the compound walls. Five people were wounded.

Soon after, the presidential guard, a Palestinian security service under Abbas's control, took over the Agriculture and Transportation ministry buildings near the compound.

A 19-year-old university student was killed during hours of subsequent gunfighting in Gaza's streets, Palestinian hospital officials said. A security guard was also killed in what witnesses described as crossfire.

For much of the past week, the armed wings of Fatah and Hamas have engaged in reprisal killings following the fatal shooting of the three young sons of a senior Palestinian intelligence officer affiliated with Fatah. On Thursday evening, gunmen attacked the convoy of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, killing one of his bodyguards and wounding his son, a political adviser and others.

Haniyeh said Sunday that Hamas would boycott early elections, which under Abbas's plan would come less than halfway through the party's four-year parliamentary term.

It is uncertain whether Abbas has the legal authority to call the early vote. But he convened the Central Elections Commission on Sunday to begin the process of arranging the vote, which his aides have said could not be held before summer.