Palestinian civil war looms as Abbas calls for early elections

GAZA CITY/RAMALLAH, Saturday (Reuters/AFP) - President Mahmoud Abbas called today for Palestinian elections, throwing down the gauntlet to his Hamas rivals after days of factional violence that has sparked fears of civil war.

Abbas said parliamentary and presidential polls should be held at the earliest opportunity, but appeared to leave the door open to the ruling Hamas by saying renewed efforts should be made to form a government that could lift Western sanctions.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair urged foreign governments to support Abbas while the United States said it hoped elections would enable peace talks with Israel to resume. Israel did not comment on the election call, but lauded Abbas as a moderate.Gunmen from Hamas and Abbas's Fatah faction clashed hours later in Gaza and at least six people were wounded, witnesses said. The said the rivals exchanged fire with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades.

An AFP story said thousands of armed Hamas supporters gathered throughout the Gaza Strip today to protest a call for early elections, which Hamas warned could lead to civil war.

Hundreds of Hamas loyalists, some of them masked and many of them armed, flocked to the parliament compound in Gaza City after the movement urged Palestinians to come out into the streets to protest Abbas's call.

“Abu Mazen (Abbas) and the Palestinian Authority are collaborating with Israel,” chanted the demonstrators.

Supporters of Abbas's rival Fatah party were due to gather in nearby Palestine Square, setting up a potentially explosive situation after a week of rising internecine violence between the two groups.

Abbas said he decided to call for early presidential and legislative elections as a way to resolve a months-long standoff with Hamas which has paralyzed the Palestinian administration.

Hamas, which has been in power for less than a year, branded the move as a “coup d'etat” and warned that it could lead to civil war.

“Today what we have heard from Abu Mazen is a call, which if God willing we will try to avoid, for a civil war,” said Ahmed Yussef, a political advisor to Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniyeh.

“We are going to make many, many demonstrations to prove to the president we have the majority and that this call for early elections is not acceptable to the Palestinian people,” Yussef said.