Fears of Civil War in Gaza
Security forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas opened fired on a Hamas rally in the West Bank on Friday and firefights erupted between the rival groups in Gaza, pushing the Palestinians closer to civil war.
At least 32 Hamas supporters were wounded by gunfire in the West Bank city of Ramallah, hospital officials said. Several were in critical condition, they said.
Tensions were at their highest in a decade and followed months of failed talks to form a unity government between the ruling Hamas Islamist faction and Abbas's once-dominant Fatah.
The violence broke out after Hamas, which controls the Palestinian Authority, accused a Fatah strongman and Abbas's presidential guard of trying to kill Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh outside the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.
clipped from: www.commondreams.org