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GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - The ruling Fatah movement and Hamas agreed early today to end armed clashes that have erupted in recent days, just as Israeli police were confronting their own opposition over Israel's planned pullout from Gaza.
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has been struggling to contain increasingly defiant Islamic militants, and in the recent clashes gunmen from his Fatah party confronted armed Hamas fighters. The result: offices torched by arsonists, wrecked cars and casualties on both sides.
Leaders of the two movements announced the accord after midnight in Gaza City. "We agreed to withdraw all armed forces from the streets of northern Gaza," said Mizar Rayyan, a local Hamas leader.
The tension is related to Palestinian rocket and mortar barrages against Israeli settlements in Gaza and towns just outside the territory, a month before Israel's scheduled pullout. Abbas wants to coordinate the pullout with Israel, while the militants prefer to step up attacks and claim credit for driving the Israelis out by force.
Fatah unofficially asked its affiliated militant group, al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, to help fight Hamas as Abbas seeks to ensure a smooth Israeli pullout from Gaza settlements, Fatah and al-Aqsa members said.
Abbas told foreign reporters in Gaza on Monday that he still preferred negotiations to temper militants' behavior, but he has recently begun using force, keenly aware of Hamas' growing power after it won a series of regional elections.
Israel and the Palestinians are each trying curb their own extremists ahead of the pullout. About 12 miles away in Israel, police surrounded the farming community of Kfar Maimon, where several thousand Israeli opponents of the Gaza pullout were camping out for a second night, hoping to march on Gaza and reinforce settlers who plan to resist evacuation.
Police declared the gathering illegal but made no move to break it up. They insisted, however, that they would not allow the protesters into Gaza itself. It was the biggest confrontation yet over Israel's withdrawal from Gaza.
Demonstrators said they would stay in their makeshift protest camp in and try to march again today - and the next day and the next - setting the stage for more confrontations.
The Palestinian infighting came after six Israelis were killed in Palestinian attacks last week, including a Palestinian Islamic Jihad suicide bombing in the seaside city of Netanya. Israeli troops massed outside Gaza over the weekend, and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said he had given the army a free hand to halt Palestinian mortar and rocket fire.
The rhetoric cooled Monday, when Israeli and Palestinian leaders said they would try to stop the escalation.
But the internal Gaza conflicts flared again Tuesday when the offices of two Hamas-affiliated research companies were burned down, residents said. Separately, a gunbattle broke out after a Palestinian police patrol traveling near a Hamas stronghold refused to stop at a makeshift Hamas roadblock.
The Palestinian Authority said nine police officers were wounded, and three cars were hit with grenades. During the clashes several cars were torched, witnesses said.
At the news conference announcing the accord, Palestinian Cabinet minister Sufian Abu Zaydeh of Fatah said differences with Hamas "have been put behind us." Both sides pledged to negotiate over future disagreements instead of resorting to force.
Hamas is running in parliamentary elections for the first time after doing well in local voting. But the Islamic movement shows no signs of giving up its armed struggle against Israel and poses a significant threat to Abbas.