PALESTINE: Gunmen from rival Palestinian factions killed one person and wounded 10 others in the Gaza Strip and occupied West Bank yesterday as the prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, appealed for an end to the internal fighting.
A top aide to President Mahmoud Abbas said the fatah leader was considering the possibility of forming an emergency government, an administration of technocrats or calling early elections to end the crisis with Hamas.
"Decisions should be taken in a short period of time," the aide, Nabil Amr, said in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
A protest by some 5,000 Abbas supporters in Rafah refugee camp, calling for the disbanding of a Hamas-led police force and the resignation of the interior minister, Saeed Seyam, turned violent with exchanges of fire between gunmen and the Hamas-led force.
Five demonstrators were wounded, including one gunman, who is in a critical condition. A policeman was also wounded and was said to be in critical conditions last night.
Earlier, gunfire erupted inside the main Shifa hospital between Hamas-led police and the family of a dead fighter loyal to Fatah. At least three people were wounded in the clash.
Abbas supporters stoned the home of a minister in the Hamas-led government, in the latest wave of pro-Fatah protests over unpaid wages and stalled talks on a unity government.
Violence also flared in the occupied West Bank, where Fatah gunmen shot dead a waiter who refused to close his Jericho restaurant to support a strike protesting against the recent violence in Gaza.
In Nablus, gunmen shot and wounded one of the bodyguards of Naser al-Shaer, the deputy prime minister.