Hamas, Fatah women fist fight as disputes inflame

Palestinians wave Hamas flags during Jerusalem Day demonstrations in Gaza September 26, 2008.

GAZA (Reuters) - Flying chairs and punches thrown by women students at a Gaza university this week may seem a rather minor manifestation of the factional fighting that has riven Palestinian society over the past year or so.

But with Hamas and Fatah still smarting from bloody armed clashes in 2007, when the Islamists routed President Mahmoud Abbas's PLO forces in the enclave, the scuffle shows how deep the rift runs.

It will be hard to bridge by a year-end deadline Abbas has set.

The fight at the university in Khan Younis was, according to witnesses, triggered by arguments over mutual allegations of repression between leaders of Hamas, who now control Gaza, and of Abbas's Fatah, which dominates the West Bank.

"I saw chairs flying over heads and some students were injured. And I saw two or three teachers hit," said one witness, who refused to be named.

Hamas police arrived and fired in the air to disperse the students. Classes were suspended for a second day on Wednesday.

But the university row is only the tip of the iceberg.

If dialogue on reconciling the two side has not started by Dec 31 there are fears of more serious factional violence in January when Abbas plans to call an election for April.

With Hamas apparently set on retaining its control of Gaza and Abbas demanding a reversal of last year's Hamas "coup" there, prospects for such a deal seem slim.

Arab Foreign Ministers were due to meet in Cairo on Wednesday to discuss Egypt's mediation bid between them. Their immediate aim is now to avert a constitutional crisis over Abbas's legitimacy after January 9, an official said.

Fatah officials in the larger, inland West Bank territory, which is separated from Gaza by 40 km (25 miles) of Israel, complained publicly this week that comrades in the coastal strip were being intimidated -- the spark the ignited the student fight. They said Hamas has banned activists of the group from making social welfare visits in the name of Fatah and warned they could be detained if they violated the orders.

Spokesman Fawzi Barhmoum denied Hamas planned to ban social or political activities by Fatah. It only intervened to prevent "plans of sabotage by some who used Fatah's name," he said.

"But in the West Bank our members are being jailed and questioned for belonging to an illegal organization, according to their Fatah interrogators," Barhoum said.

Egypt's mediation sputtered earlier this month because "Abbas and Fatah were not interested in having a dialogue while we sought real reconciliation," Barhmoum said.

A Fatah official responded: "Hamas does not want dialogue because they want to have a state of their own in Gaza."

Hamas said Fatah has detained 2,891 Hamas members since June 2007. It says 650 are still in West Bank jails. Hamas says it holds no Fatah political prisoners. Fatah says scores are held.

(Editing by Alastair Macdonald and Douglas Hamilton)