Six people died in the Gaza clashes on Saturday, including a two-year-old boy, gunned down by Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah group.
Two were killed in the crossfire near Gaza City’s Islamic University, two in the Tal al-Hawa neighborhood, one in the Sudaniya slums and the two-year-old, who died in a Gaza hospital after being shot in Khan Younis.
One particularly pitched battle took place near a PA security forces compound in Gaza City. The rival terror groups lobbed grenades at one another and even fired mortar shells.
Hamas announced Friday that it had suspended talks with Fatah on sharing the power Hamas won following the parliamentary election one year ago. "Following the awful massacres committed today in Gaza, we have decided to postpone all dialogue with Fatah," Hamas official Ismail Radwan said. Fatah claimed it had initiated the decision to halt talks.
On Friday, three Hamas men were killed outside a Gaza City mosque. A member of Fatah’s Al-Aksa brigade was then gunned down, along with two bystanders, who suffered gunshot wounds.
Hamas men had surrounded Fatah terror chief Mansour Shalayel in the Jabalya slums, leading Al Aksa terrorists to round up 24 Hamas members, threatening to kill them if he was not released. Hamas men executed Shalayel and a Hamas man was soon killed and five injured in an alleged Fatah bombing. Fatah says the bomb belonged the Hamas men and went off prematurely.
Hamas then fired rockets at the home of Fatah official Nabil Jarjir. Wounded, Jarjil was being transported to the hospital when Hamas men stopped the ambulance and shot him in the head, killing him.
Large Hamas rallies took place Friday throughout Judea, Samaria and Gaza. The main rally was in Jabalya, though Ismail Haniyeh did not attend due to fears of an assassination attempt by Fatah.
Later that night, Fatah kidnapped seven Hamas members and Hamas abducted six Fatah men.
Shots were fired at the home of Hamas member and PA Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar on two occasions since Thursday.
The diplomatic mission of Canada and Germany were also targeted by Fatah terrorists, after they were evicted from Abbas’s Mukata compound.
Rocket-propelled grenades were fired at the home of Fatah official Rashid Abu Shubak, a man close to PLO chairman Mahmoud Abbas and in charge of faction of the PA security forces still controlled by Fatah. Shubak was not reported injured.
Although a cease-fire agreement was said to have been reached Friday evening, it has yet to be implemented.