One Jordanian was killed and at least seven Palestinians wounded as rising tensions between the rival Hamas and Fatah factions erupted into heavy fighting near the Parliament in Gaza on Monday.
A driver at the Jordanian representation was killed in the running gun battle close to the Legislative Council building, pitting police and preventative security against a new Paramilitary force deployed by the Hamas-led government.
Heavy explosions pounded the area as bullets reverberated off walls, ambulances screeched through the streets and clouds of acrid smoke filled the air. The dead man was named as 55-year-old Khaled Hassan al-Radaida.
Hamas supporters used at least one rocket-propelled grenade against police, which is dominated by the former ruling Fatah party loyal to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, a security source on the spot said.
A vehicle parked outside Parliament burst into flames after apparently being struck by a hand grenade, while Hamas gunmen hunkered down inside an empty extension under construction within the Parliament compound.
A Palestinian security officer blamed Hamas gunmen for sparking the troubles when members of the new paramilitary, answerable to the Hamas-controlled interior ministry, opened fire on a preventative security vehicle.
Abbas, who has been considerably weakened by the escalating showdown with the ruling Hamas, called Jordan’s representative in Gaza Yehya al-Qarala to offer his condolences over the death of the driver, Palestinian sources said.
The fresh clashes came only hours after a Fatah militant was shot dead by Hamas gunmen in the southern Gaza Strip town of Abassan, despite calls from the leadership of both sides to avoid a descent into civil war.
Mohammed Abu Taima, who belonged to the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed offshoot of Fatah, suffered fatal head wounds in the attack in Abassan. Similar clashes in the same town last week left three people dead.
Assassination attempts against the heads of the security and intelligence services, both Fatah stalwarts, have further underlined fears of all-out internecine warfare.
Abbas declared at a conference on Sunday that ”civil war is a red line which no one would dare to cross”.
Hamas leaders have also sought to distance themselves from the violence, with government spokesperson Ghazi Hamad accusing ”suspect parties” of ”trying to provoke disorder” and ”set Palestinians against each other”.
Hamas resents that the security forces, packed with Fatah followers, remain Abbas’s responsibility and ineffective in clamping down on chronic anarchy.
The Islamists have consequently deployed thousands of members of a volunteer paramilitary — vetoed by the president — sending tensions soaring and forcing Fatah to beef up its own security forces.
Concerned about the extent of the power struggle, analyst Nicolas Pelham from the International Crisis Group said the prospect of an all-out conflict was a very real danger.
”Clearly, there is a danger of fully fledged clashes between Hamas and Fatah,” he told Agence France-Presse.
”Everybody is preparing themselves that the national dialogue is going to fail … All sides are preparing for the possibility of a major showdown.”
Amid the unrest, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert castigated Abbas as a weak leader incapable of fulfilling his dream of reopening stalled Middle East peace talks with the Jewish state.
”He is powerless. He is helpless. He’s unable to even stop the minimal terror activities amongst the Palestinians,” Olmert told CNN in an interview.
Olmert will on Tuesday hold his first talks with United States President George Bush — who has refused to have any dealings with Hamas unless it recognises Israel and renounces violence — since winning a March election in Israel. — AFP