PALESTINIAN CIVIL WAR JUST GETTING STARTED

Hamas, Fatah clash in deepening violence. (AP)
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Gunmen allied with Hamas and Fatah clashed at a West Bank mosque and in Gaza Strip streets on Friday, as violence spread to areas of the Palestinian territories normally untouched by factional strife.

Hamas accused a Fatah leader of orchestrating the previous day’s attack on Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh — and a Hamas politician appeared to call for the Fatah strongman’s assassination. Leaders of both groups have warned that the violence threatens to degenerate into civil war.

The clashes in Gaza City and the West Bank town of Ramallah marred celebrations Friday 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, 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 Friday in the normally peaceful city of Ramallah began when Hamas supporters tried to march toward the town center, where Fatah-allied police had deployed to prevent a planned Hamas celebration.

Police formed a cordon around a Hamas mosque to prevent those inside from marching, then beat them with clubs and fired their rifles in the air when the activists tried to leave. The marchers fought back, throwing stones and bottles at the police, some of whom fired into the crowd. 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. The showdown, a block from the home of Mohammed Dahlan, broke out shortly after Hamas accused the Fatah strongman of orchestrating the attack on Haniyeh on Thursday at the Gaza-Egypt border terminal.