Hamas fighters and forces loyal to Western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas battled on Wednesday for control of the Gaza Strip in an escalating Palestinian supremacy struggle he described as "madness".
Many of Gaza's beleaguered 1.5 million inhabitants called the conflict a civil war and Israel served notice their chances of achieving statehood could dim if Hamas emerged victorious over Abbas's Fatah faction, its partner in a unity government.
Chanting "stop the killing", some 1,000 Palestinians marched through Gaza City, only to draw gunfire that killed two of the demonstrators and wounded four. It was not immediately clear who shot at them. At least 22 people were killed in the latest violence, raising the death toll since the current surge of bloodshed began on Saturday to 70, hospital officials said.
Hamas's armed wing, which tightened its hold on northern Gaza by seizing a major Fatah security base and control of main roads, said "the coup-seekers" - a reference to Fatah - in that area have until Friday evening to hand over their weapons.
"Remain in your positions and defend the security headquarters with all your might," the high command of the Fatah-dominated National Security Forces ordered its men in response to the ultimatum.
Hamas appeared to be gaining ground in the Gaza Strip, its main stronghold, as fighting spread to the central and southern parts of the coastal territory. Eighty wounded were taken to hospitals. Gun battles also erupted in Gaza City.
Hamas gunmen killed six Fatah men in one clash, members of Abbas's faction said. Five other Fatah fighters died in a Hamas assault on security compounds in the central town of Khan Younis, medical officials said. A statement by an Abbas aide that 13 Fatah members were killed at the facility could not be confirmed.
Two Palestinian employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency were killed in separate incidents, and UNRWA said it would temporarily suspend most of its operations in the coastal territory.
SHATTERED UNITY: In Washington, White House spokesman Tony Snow said the Palestinians "are going to have to sort out their politics and figure out which pathway they want to pursue, the pathway towards two states living peaceably side by side or whether this sort of chaos is going to become a problem."
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, speaking in Jerusalem, said Hamas control of Gaza would raise questions about Israel's "ability to reach agreements with (Abbas) and whether it would be possible to implement them" in the territory.
Speaking to reporters in the occupied West Bank, an area largely untouched by internal fighting, Abbas said, "what is happening in Gaza is madness" and repeated a call for a truce. The Gaza bloodshed has prompted Fatah to say it was suspending participation in the unity government with Hamas without an immediate ceasefire. The government was formed in March under Saudi mediation to try to end infighting and ease Western sanctions.
Abbas's group stopped short of withdrawing outright, a move that could lead to presidential rule by decree and widen a divide between the West Bank, where Fatah is dominant, and Gaza.