GAZA
The Palestinian faction Fatah had decided to cancel out a rally – scheduled in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday – to mark the 10th anniversary of the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, a leader of Islamic Jihad said Sunday.
Khaled al-Batch said in a statement that Fatah leader Faisal Abu Shahla had officially told him that his movement had decided to cancel out the Arafat event in the Gaza Strip.
Al-Batch is a coordinator of relations among Palestinian factions. He said Fatah would organize a conference soon to mention in detail the reasons for cancelling out the rally.
Earlier on Sunday, Gaza's Interior Ministry said that it had officially told the West Bank-based Fatah that it would not be able to secure the rally in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday.
Interior Ministry spokesman Eiad al-Bozum said the apology boiled down to what he described as "Fatah's internal conflicts", even without clarifying the nature of these conflicts.
On Friday, a series of coordinated bombings targeted the homes of some leading Fatah members in the Gaza Strip.
One of the bombs went off close to a stage set up for the planned event to mark Arafat's death anniversary.
Fatah had accused Hamas of standing behind the bombings, even as Hamas denied this charge.
Relations between the two main Palestinian factions deteriorated in the past weeks, even as they signed a reconciliation agreement in April, ending rifts that persisted since 2007.
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