3 shot in Gaza clashes with Hamas

Three demonstrators were shot and wounded on Sunday in a clash with Hamas police in Gaza during an event to mark the third anniversary of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s death, medical sources said.Sources close to the Fateh Party of Arafat’s successor Mahmoud Abbas said the clash took place in Nusseirat refugee camp, south of Gaza City, after police opened fire in the air to disperse more than 1,000 pro-Fateh demonstrators.

The Executive Force police of the Islamist movement Hamas fired at the demonstrators as they came under attack with stones, the sources said. Three people were shot, while others were beaten and arrests were made.

Meanwhile, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak vowed on Sunday to press ahead with cuts to the power supply to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip despite legal moves to stop them.

“The electricity supply to the Gaza Strip will be limited,” a senior government official quoted Barak as saying.

“The electricity cutbacks will be established soon and will be included in a series of sanctions Israel is imposing on the Hamas government,” the former premier said.

Israel last month began reducing fuel supplies to Gaza after declaring the impoverished territory a “hostile entity” following Hamas’ takeover of the territory in June.

But Attorney General Menachem Mazuz ordered a halt to the power cuts on October 29 pending a full assessment of the likely humanitarian consequences on the population of the impoverished Gaza Strip.

Human rights groups have also appealed to the supreme court charging that the threatened cuts constitute collective punishment of the territory’s civilian population in violation of international law.