Hamas raids rival Fatah offices in Gaza
GAZA CITY (AFP) — Armed men from the Islamist Hamas movement raided the Gaza offices of the rival Fatah movement overnight ahead of a key anniversary of president Mahmud Abbas's party, officials said on Sunday.
Gunmen from the Hamas-run Executive Force broke into Fatah headquarters in Gaza City, confiscating equipment and computers, Fatah officials said. At least two other Fatah offices in the coastal territory were also targetted.
"Armed men from the Hamas movement at dawn raided the headquarters of the Fatah movement... just as they raided several branch offices of the movement in different areas of Gaza," said Ahmed Hellis, a senior Fatah official.
"This behaviour is incomprehensible and follows continuing aggressions against the members and institutions of the Fatah movement."
The Executive Force -- a paramilitary group that has policed the Gaza Strip since Hamas violently seized power in June -- also raided Al-Azhar University, the university's president said, arresting dozens of students.
A spokesman for the Executive Force said the students were arrested for "illegal" activities.
The incidents come two days before a key anniversary of the secular Fatah party founded by the late Palestinian iconic leader Yasser Arafat. On January 1, 1965 Fatah for the first time declared itself as an armed Palestinian resistance group.
Long a dominant force in Palestinian politics, Fatah was crushed in parliamentary elections in January 2006 by the Islamist Hamas.
The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) seized control of the Gaza Strip in June, routing forces loyal to Fatah after a week of deadly street fighting.
