Gaza: Palestinians battled across Gaza yesterday in what looked ever more like civil war as the forces of President Mahmoud Abbas rounded on those of the Islamist prime minister and their unity government headed for collapse.
The biggest security force loyal to Abbas, favoured by the West, was ordered onto the streets to defeat what his secular Fatah supporters called a "coup" by Hamas Islamists after Hamas gunmen stormed a key Fatah security base in Gaza.
At least eight men were killed and 50 wounded, hospital officials said, taking to 28 the number of dead in the coastal enclave since Saturday. Early yesterday, the Gaza homes of both Abbas and Prime Minister Esmail Haniya of Hamas were fired on.
Accounts varied on how far Hamas fighters had taken control of the Fatah security base, one of several that they ordered evacuated three hours earlier in an unprecedented ultimatum.
Fatah officials said their men held their ground.
Intense gunfire and explosions could be heard from the base of the National Security Forces. Reinforcements from the NSF were later seen moving in vehicles through the deserted streets of Gaza City toward areas where Hamas had asserted control.
Transmitters jammed
"Advance!" an order from NSF commanders said, as some Hamas radio transmitters were briefly jammed by signals broadcasting music praising Fatah military leaders.
"Confront the seekers of the coup," the order said. "Defend your dignity and military honour. Defend the people's security." At least four Hamas men were killed in the ensuing battle, said Goma Assaqa, a doctor at Gaza's Shifa hospital.
Most of the Gaza Strip's 1.5 million people took refuge in their homes. They have little chance to flee through the restricted main crossing into Egypt.
"I think we are in Iraq, not in Gaza," Ammar, a 40-year-old father of six, said. "Snipers on rooftops killing people. Bodies mutilated and dumped in the streets in very humiliating ways.
"What else does civil war mean but this?"
