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Officials: Hamas and Fatah agree to ceasefire

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GAZA CITY (CNN) -- The leading Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah agreed to a cease-fire after street battles left at least two people dead, leaders of other parties involved in the talks announced early Monday.

Clashes between gunmen loyal to Fatah, led by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, and Hamas, which controls the Palestinian government, escalated Sunday after Abbas called for new elections in the Palestinian territories.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya on Sunday rejected Abbas' call for early elections

The cease-fire took effect shortly after midnight Sunday, according to representatives of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Democratic Action, two parties that helped negotiate the deal.(Watch streets of violence in Gaza )

The streets of Gaza City were quiet after the proclamation.

Officials from Hamas and Fatah confirmed their factions had signed onto the plan, but neither party sent officials to the news conference where the deal was announced.

According to the Popular Front and Democratic Action, both sides agreed to pull their gunmen off the streets, stop demonstrations and put an end to provocative statements in Palestinian news media.

Bowing to pressure from Egyptian officials, Fatah also agreed to release seven Hamas members arrested over the weekend, sources in Abbas' office said.

Fatah and Hamas fighters fought an intense gun battle near Abbas' office in Gaza one day after he delivered an impassioned speech calling for new elections. At least one person -- a 19-year-old female university student -- was killed, medical sources said. Abbas was in the West Bank and not in his Gaza office at the time.

Additionally, Hamas militants fired several mortar shells that hit near Abbas' compound, but there was no sign of casualties, said Wa'el Dahab, a spokesman for the Palestinian presidential guard.

Elsewhere, three Palestinians were wounded in Jabaliya when Hamas militants fired on a Fatah rally, Palestinian medical sources said.

Also in Jabalya, sources in Fatah's Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades said that militants from Hamas' Izzedine al Qassam killed one of their field commanders and kidnapped one of their members.

And in a separate Jabalya incident, Al Aqsa kidnapped two members of Izzedine al Qassam, the Al Aqsa sources said.

Earlier in the day, suspected Hamas gunmen attacked a training camp for the Palestinian presidential guard, killing one person, Palestinian security forces told CNN.

And suspected Fatah gunmen fired on a convoy carrying Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahhar, but no one was wounded in the attacks, Palestinian security sources and Hamas sources said.

Fighting between Hamas and Fatah has spiked since Thursday, when Haniya was attacked as he tried to re-enter Gaza with millions of dollars he raised during a tour of neighboring countries.

Haniya and Hamas -- which the United States, Israel and the European Union consider a terrorist organization -- took over the Palestinian government from Fatah in last January's elections, leading to sanctions that have crippled the Palestinian economy.

Abbas Saturday denied there was any conspiracy to kill Haniya, and said that Hamas supporters sparked the violence at the border crossing by bringing machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades to welcome their leader home.

Abbas also said that he did not want Fatah to be part of a Hamas-led government, and said he had the constitutional right to dissolve the government and call new elections. He vowed Palestinians would not be drawn into civil war.

"We need to lift the siege," he said. "Everyone must work together to achieve this objective."

Haniya said early elections would be unconstitutional and that Hamas would not participate, an adviser to the prime minister said.

Abbas said the elections would take place within three months.

But Saeb Erakat, chief Palestinian negotiator, told CNN that preliminary work needs to be done by the Palestinian election committee, after which the committee could recommend a time frame to Abbas.

Then he would issue a decree to carry out the elections.

Erakat said he thinks elections would not take place before mid-2007.

On Saturday, White House spokeswoman Jeanie Mamo reacted positively to Abbas' proposal.

"While the elections are an internal matter, we hope this helps bring the violence to an end and the formation of a Palestinian Authority committed to the Quartet principles."

The Mideast Quartet includes the United States, Russia, the United Nations and the European Union, which have been trying to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

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