JERUSALEM - Amnesty International on Wednesday harshly criticized rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah for harming civilians in their deadly infighting.
The international human rights group released a 58-page report titled "Torn apart by factional strife," and said about 350 Palestinians were killed during the first months of 2007 in infighting in the Gaza Strip. Many of the dead were noncombatants, Amnesty said.
The clashes peaked in mid-June, when Hamas militants thrashed pro-Fatah security forces in the Gaza Strip and overran the territory.
After the Hamas takeover, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah dismissed the Hamas-led Cabinet and formed his own government, which controls the West Bank. Hamas, led by deposed Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, continues to rule Gaza.
During the clashes, militants mounted attacks from civilian apartment buildings and hospitals and targeted rival patients in their hospital beds, the London-based organization said. Fighter used crowded residential neighborhoods as war zones, firing mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and bullets from civilian buildings.
The Abbas government condemned the report, and a Hamas spokesman said his government wants to "open a new page" through dialogue with Fatah.........
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