Meltdown between Fatah and Hamas

could lead to civil war:
"One day after the attempted assassination of Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya, Fatah and Hamas are shooting at each other. In an exclusive interview with SPIEGEL ONLINE, veteran Palestinian politician Hanan Ashrawi warns of possible civil war and calls on all sides to lay down their arms."

[snip]

"SPIEGEL ONLINE: Could this be the start of a Palestinian civil war?

Ashrawi: It certainly has all the indications of internal confrontations and clashes among different militias and among different factions. So I'd hate to think of this as a civil war but clearly it has the elements of an internal confrontation which is extremely dangerous and very lethal. And of course Palestinian weapons are being used against other Palestinians and it threatens to spiral out of control.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Just a few weeks ago, the Palestinian factions were still negotiating to create a national unity government. Now they are shooting at each other, and there has been an attempt on the life of Prime Minister Ismail Haniya. Why are Palestinians shooting at each other instead of trying to foster unity?

Ashrawi: This has been some time in the making. First of all, the Palestinians are living in a very abnormal situation, in a pressure cooker, in a situation in Gaza where it's entirely besieged and cut off from the rest of the world and the economy is in shambles, totally destroyed. The situation is one of utter deprivation. There is tremendous anger, there is such resentment and vulnerability and for some time now there has been the external siege and the sanctions have created this situation in which people feel there is no way out. There is a sense of despair. Generally people cooped up like this with no way out tend to take out their anger against each other. And besides there has been a political rivalry, let's put it that way, between the two major factions Fatah and Hamas that has not resolved itself in ways that are peaceful. At the same time other people have not played a constructive role in trying to resolve these differences in a democratic way. And I'm afraid the situation is going to extend beyond the confines of Gaza and into different areas of the West Bank."

AlJazeera has more:
"At least 13 Palestinians have been wounded in the Gaza Strip after supporters of the ruling Hamas movement and the rival Fatah faction traded fire during protests after Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, called for early elections, medics and witnesses say.

Thousands of armed Hamas and Fatah supporters staged competing protests in central Gaza City late on Saturday. Demonstrations were also under way in the south and the north of the coastal strip. Several smaller protests were also staged in the West Bank.

Hamas has rejected Abbas's call for elections, warning that it amounted to a call for "civil war" and vowed to fight the measure by bringing its supporters into the streets."