[JURIST] Competing Palestinian governments controlled by Fatah in the West Bank and Hamas [BBC backgrounders] in Gaza have been committing human rights violations in their bids for dominance over the Palestinian territories, the Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizens' Rights (PICCR) [advocacy website] said Tuesday. PICCR reported that it had received over 2,000 reports of human rights abuses in 2007, including illegal detentions and torture. A spokesman for the group also accused both governments of limiting the freedoms of speech and assembly. Reuters has more. AP has additional coverage.

In 2007, Amnesty International [advocacy website] released a 58-page report [text; JURIST report] criticizing the two main Palestinian political factions for causing wide-scale violence involving civilians. The report recognized the weakness of Palestinian institutions, but insisted that they stop the Gaza Strip [BBC backgrounder] and West Bank conflicts. Israel's occupation and repeated attacks on Palestinian targets have been used by some Palestinian officials as excuses for inaction.