PALESTINIAN CIVIL WAR UPDATE

Factional Fighting Terrorizes Gaza - Ibrahim Barzak and Karin Laub
A total of 15 people were killed in Tuesday's fighting between Hamas and Fatah, as gunmen in black ski masks took up positions in the streets and terrified residents huddled in their homes. In all, at least 28 people have been killed and dozens wounded in this week's fighting. The current fighting had many of the elements of previous Hamas-Fatah clashes: combatants kidnapped scores of rivals, set up roadblocks to search cars, took over rooftops of high-rises and often fired randomly in crowded residential areas. (AP/Washington Post)

See also Reality Overtakes the Illusion of Unity in Gaza - Steven Erlanger
The continuing battle between Fatah and Hamas for power in Gaza suggests that the Palestinian unity government, put together under Saudi auspices at the end of March, is something of a fiction. It also makes the likelihood of substantive peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians ever more distant. On Tuesday Hamas chose to attack the training base of the Presidential Guard, near the Karni crossing, which Fatah men are supposed to protect under Washington's latest security plan for Gaza. The attack seemed aimed as much at the U.S. for siding with Fatah as at the guardsmen themselves, who did not fight very well, witnesses said. (New York Times)

See also Fatah Bolsters Ranks as Gaza Fighting Intensifies
Hundreds of gunmen loyal to the Palestinian faction Fatah streamed into Gaza Tuesday from neighboring Egypt after a Hamas attack killed eight people at a Fatah-controlled base near a key Israeli border crossing. (CBC News)

See also Palestinian Gunmen Fire on Egyptian Mediators in Gaza
Palestinian gunmen on Tuesday night fired from a passing car at members of an Egyptian security delegation who were in Gaza to mediate between the warring Fatah and Hamas factions. (Jerusalem Post)