Hamas and Fatah gunmen clashed at a West Bank mosque and on Gaza Strip streets today, deepening factional violence a day after gunmen shot at the convoy of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas.
Hamas leader and Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar
Ahmad Yousef, Prime Minister Ismail Haniya's political adviser, lies in a hospital after being wounded while in a car with Haniya leaving the Rafah border crossing yesterday
The street battles came as Hamas accused a powerful Fatah leader of orchestrating the attack on Haniyeh — and a powerful Hamas politician appeared to call for the Fatah strongman's assassination.
Leaders of both groups warned in recent days that the spiralling violence threatened to bring the Palestinians to civil war.
The fighting damped celebrations marking the 19th anniversary of Hamas' founding.
However, the Islamic militant group pushed ahead with its rallies, and about 70,000 loyalists gathered at a stadium in Gaza City this afternoon, cheering wildly, sobbing and firing in the air when Haniyeh arrived flanked by more than 50 armed bodyguards.
"We joined this movement to become martyrs, not ministers," Haniyeh declared in a fiery speech, referring to Hamas loyalists' willingness to die for the Islamic cause.
He then left for an emergency session of the Hamas-led Cabinet, called to discuss the escalating unrest.
The fighting today in the normally peaceful city of Ramallah began when Hamas supporters tried to march toward the centre of town, where Fatah-allied police had deployed to prevent a planned Hamas celebration.
In a scene witnessed by Associated Press photographers, police formed a cordon around a Hamas mosque to prevent those inside from marching — then beat the activists with clubs and fired rifles in the air when they tried to leave. The marchers fought back, hurling stones and bottles at police, who fired into the crowd, sending Hamas supporters and bystanders scrambling for cover.
Thirty-two people were wounded by stones and gunfire, hospital officials said.
In Gaza City, masked Hamas gunmen waged battle with Fatah-allied police near a security post in the middle of the city. The four-minute shootout sent civilians running for cover.
The showdown, a block from the home of Mohammed Dahlan, broke out shortly after Hamas accused the Fatah strongman of masterminding the attack on Haniyeh yesterday at the Gaza-Egypt border terminal.
The violence at the terminal erupted after Israel barred Haniyeh from returning to Gaza after a tour of Muslim countries, insisting he first leave behind $35 million he collected there, saying it would go to fund terror activities.
Angry Hamas militants stormed the terminal and traded fire with security forces stationed there, who are loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Fatah's leader.
After Haniyeh left the money in Egypt and was allowed to cross into Gaza, unidentified men began firing at him, killing one of his bodyguards and wounding his son and 26 others.
At the bodyguard's funeral, Khalil al-Hayeh, head of the Hamas bloc in parliament, told mourners that Dahlan was trying to instigate a coup against the government — and appeared to call for his head.
Invoking a coup attempt against Islam's founder, the prophet Mohammed, al-Hayeh exhorted the crowd to "get us the plotters of the coup."
"We will, we will," the crowd replied.
Al-Hayeh also said Hamas would act with an iron fist against all of those involved in the attack.
AP