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Palestinian civil skirmishes
Date December 15, 2006– ongoing Location Gaza Strip, Ramallah Result Ongoing
Combatants
Hamas	Fatah
Commanders
Ismail Haniyeh	Mahmoud Abbas
Casualties
3-4 killed

The Palestinian civil skirmishes began after the ruling Hamas party acccused Fatah of trying to kill the Palestinian foreign minister after shots were earlier fired at his convoy in Gaza City on December 15, 2006. Mahmoud al-Zahar was unharmed in the attack. Image File history File links Current_event_marker. ... Image File history File links Wiki_letter_w. ... December 15 is the 349th day of the year (350th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Ramallah (Arabic:  ) is a Palestinian city in the West Bank of approximately 57,000 residents. ... Hamas Logo from the Hamas web site: www. ... Hamas (Arabic: ‎; acronym: Arabic: ‎, or Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiyya or Islamic Resistance Movement; the Arabic acronym means zeal) is a Palestinian Sunni Islamist organization that currently (since January 2006) forms the majority party of the Palestinian National Authority. ... The Fatah official emblem shows two fists holding rifles and a hand grenade superimposed on a map of the land they claimed as Palestine (roughly, the present State of Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip). ... Please wikify (format) this article or section as suggested in the Guide to layout and the Manual of Style. ... Ismail Haniya Ismail Haniya (born 1962) (Arabic: إسماعيل هنية) is a senior political leader of Hamas, a group that has claimed responsibility for numerous suicide bombings targeting civilians, and has been nominated to become the next Prime Minister of the Palestinian National Authority. ... Mahmoud Abbas (Arabic: محمود عباس) (born March 26, 1935), commonly known by the kunya Abu Mazen (ابو مازن), was elected President of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) on January 9, 2005, and took office on January 15, 2005. ... Hamas (Arabic: ‎; acronym: Arabic: ‎, or Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiyya or Islamic Resistance Movement; the Arabic acronym means zeal) is a Palestinian Sunni Islamist organization that currently (since January 2006) forms the majority party of the Palestinian National Authority. ... Please wikify (format) this article or section as suggested in the Guide to layout and the Manual of Style. ... The article is about the Middle Eastern city. ... December 15 is the 349th day of the year (350th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Mahmoud al-Zahar (Arabic: محمود الزهار) (born 1945) is a co-founder of Hamas, and a member of Hamass leadership in the Gaza Strip. ...

Background

See also: Palestinian legislative election, 2006

Hamas nominally came to power after the 2006 Palestinian elections, and foreign aid was suspended because Hamas was considered a terrorist organization by the United States, Israel, and the European Union. The clashes were triggered by tensions between the two Palestinian factions after they failed to reach a deal to share government power. Hamas, which would prefer holding the full term of their democratically elected offices, rejected the early elections called by Abbas as an attempted Fatah coup^{[citation needed]}, ultimately using nondemocratic means to overthrow the results of a democratically elected government.^{[citation needed]} The push to achieve stability, calling for early elections could result in a civil war, having the unintended opposite effect. Wikinews has news related to this article: Hamas wins Palestinian election On January 25, 2006, elections were held for the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), the legislature of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA). ... Wikinews has news related to this article: Hamas wins Palestinian election On January 25, 2006, elections were held for the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), the legislature of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA). ... Early presidential and legislative elections were called in Palestine by the President of the Palestinian National Authority Mahmoud Abbas after the negotiations on a unity government consisting of his Fatah and the Hamas failed in late 2006. ... A coup détat, or simply a coup, is the sudden overthrow of a government, usually done by a small group that just replaces the top power figures. ... A civil war is a war in which parties within the same culture, society or nationality fight against each other for the control of political power. ...

Timeline

December 15

On December 15, 2006, fighting has broken out in the West Bank after Palestinian security forces fired on a Hamas rally in Ramallah. At least 20 people were wounded in the clashes which came shortly after Hamas accused Fatah of attempting to assassinate Ismail Haniya, the Palestinian prime minister.[1] December 15 is the 349th day of the year (350th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Ramallah (Arabic:  ) is a Palestinian city in the West Bank of approximately 57,000 residents. ... Ismail Haniya (more frequently Haniyeh) (born 1963) (Arabic: إسماعيل هنية) is the Prime Minister of the Palestinian National Authority. ...

December 16

Mahmoud Abbas, a member of the Fatah party, called for early elections on December 16 after failing to reach consensus with Hamas about the formation of a government. Please wikify (format) this article or section as suggested in the Guide to layout and the Manual of Style. ... Early presidential and legislative elections were called in Palestine by the President of the Palestinian National Authority Mahmoud Abbas after the negotiations on a unity government consisting of his Fatah and the Hamas failed in late 2006. ... December 16 is the 350th day of the year (351st in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... Hamas (Arabic: ‎; acronym: Arabic: ‎, or Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiyya or Islamic Resistance Movement; the Arabic acronym means zeal) is a Palestinian Sunni Islamist organization that currently (since January 2006) forms the majority party of the Palestinian National Authority. ...

At least 32 Hamas supporters in Ramallah were wounded by gunfire from Mahmoud Abbas's forces on Friday, hospital officials said.[2]

December 18

Gunmen from Hamas and Fatah faced off on December 18 morning in a gunbattle in the middle of Gaza City, a battle that left a teenager wounded. About 10 masked Hamas gunmen, with rifles, grenades and rocket launchers, took shelter behind walls in downtown Gaza as they fought a dozen other gunmen from Fatah, witnesses said. In the Gregorian Calendar, December 18 is the 352nd day of the year (353rd in leap years), at which point there will be 13 days remaining to the end of the year. ...

The fighting, which came despite a truce agreement between the two sides, wounded a 16-year-old boy with a bullet in the neck. [3]

On the same day, Hamas gunmen kidnaped Sufian Abu Zaydeh, a former Fatah cabinet minister in the northern Gaza Strip. Zaydeh was later freed 'as gesture of goodwill'.[4]

Sources

• [5]
• [6]