A coalition of 13 Palestinian groups, including Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement and the Islamic militant Hamas group, issued a call for unity after vicious street fighting Monday between Palestinian police and Islamists.
"What happened in Gaza today is against our intifada, which unites Palestinian blood," the High Committee for the National and Islamic Forces said after an emergency meeting convened following the gunning down of two Palestinians during the clashes.
"We ask the Palestinian National Authority to open an inquiry into what happened in Gaza and who was responsible for the firing.
"The Palestinian committee regrets and is pained by the killing of two Palestinians," it added.
The committee also denounced the attacks on least four police stations and the sacking of a civil aviation office during the melee.
"We call on Palestinian people to keep the national unity ... to make sure our front is strong."
The group urged the Palestinians "to kick the Israeli occupation out and establish our independent state, with a capital in Jerusalem."
Two young Palestinians were killed and at least 200 others injured in street fighting between Islamist students and Palestinian police, hospital sources and police said.
Police blamed masked gunmen in the crowd, while protestors and a human rights group said it was the police themselves who opened deadly fire in Gaza City -- GAZA CITY (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
