Hamas and Fatah Leaders Call for Calm After Clashes - New York Times: "December 17, 2006
Hamas and Fatah Leaders Call for Calm After Clashes
By STEVEN ERLANGER
JERUSALEM, Dec. 17 — After a day of rallies and violent clashes in Gaza between supporters of Hamas and Fatah, with both sides trying to send messages of strength following a presidential order for early elections, leaders called for calm this evening.
The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, and the acting speaker of the Palestinian Parliament, Ahmed Baher of Hamas, appealed separately to militants of all stripes to lay down their arms after gun battles around the presidential compound in Gaza City killed a security officer and a 19-year-old woman passerby and wounded six people.
The day encompassed a predawn raid on the presidential guard, the takeover of two ministries, large rallies, shooting at the Hamas foreign minister’s convoy and at least one mortar fired toward Mr. Abbas’s Gaza house and office.
“We ask all armed people to leave the streets and stop fighting,” Mr. Baher said. “We ask people not to use weapons to solve political issues and not to take political issues to the street.”
The Hamas interior Minister, Siad Siam, said that “the security situat"
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