At least 15 Palestinians, including a United Nations relief worker, were killed Wednesday as Hamas sought to complete its conquest of the entire Gaza Strip.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said the wake of the killings of its staff that it was suspending most of its activities in Gaza. Another UNRWA employee was killed in clashes Tuesday.
UNRWA said it couldn‘t distribute food to the 30 percent of the Gaza Strip that relies on international food aid.
The agency‘s Gaza director, John Bing, said the agency would scale back its operations, but insisted, "We are scaling back, we are not pulling back."
At least 14 other Palestinians were killed by Hamas fire Wednesday, including 13 members of Fatah.
On Wednesday afternoon, Fatah gunmen detonated an explosive device along the Philadelphi route near the Gaza-Egypt border. The explosion destroyed part of the Shigumim wall, built by Israel on Gaza‘s border, and dozens of Fatah gunmen fled from the Hamas to Egypt through the gap in the wall.
Hamas leaders blamed the Gaza fighting on Abbas, saying his security forces were corrupt and riddled with criminals. Abbas called the fighting madness and appealed to Hamas‘ exiled leader, Khaled Meshal, to end the violence.
The fighting, which has largely kept to the Gaza Strip, also spread to the West Bank on Wednesday, with Hamas and Fatah gunmen trading fire in Nablus.
Gunmen from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs‘ Brigades, a military wing of Fatah, tried to seize employees of a pro-Hamas TV company. Hamas gunmen rushed to the scene, sparking a firefight.
Al-Aqsa leaders said the attack was retaliation for Hamas attacks on positions of Fatah-allied security forces in Gaza. There were no immediate reports of injuries.
In Gaza City, a civilian was killed Wednesday when some 1,000 Palestinians marched through the streets chanting "stop the killing" - only to draw gunfire from Hamas militants at a nearby police station seized from Fatah a day earlier.
Several hundred tribal leaders, women, children and Islamic Jihad militants turned out for the protest, which was initiated by Egyptian mediators.
Witnesses said Hamas gunmen shot at the protesters as they approached the house of the Bakr family - Fatah loyalists - trapping the demonstrators.
Protester Bilal Qurashali said he saw a man shot in the head. "We are unable to get out." The place is closed, he said.
Health officials said another 14 protesters were wounded by bullets and brought to the hospital in civilian cars because ambulances couldn‘t navigate the heavy fire.
Separately, Hamas gunmen opened fire from a high-rise building at about 1,000 protesters in Khan Yunis, wounding one and breaking up the demonstration.
Hamas-controlled Gaza
The militant Islamic group is now in control of southern, central, and northern Gaza, with Fatah‘s only remaining significant positions located in Gaza City.
Hamas has systematically taken control of security positions in the north and south, apparently leaving the main battle for the Strip‘s security and political nerve center in Gaza City for last.
In the southern town of Khan Yunis, Hamas militants Wednesday detonated a one-ton bomb under the headquarters of the Preventative Security, a force loyal to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah. At least one person was killed and eight others were wounded, medics said.
The security forces said they had lost control of the town.
"Khan Yunis is finished, but we are still holding on in [the southern town] Rafah," said Ziad Sarafandi, a senior security official.
Before the blast, Hamas militants called on the officers inside the building to come out or they would blow the building up, witnesses said.
Hamas gave Fatah-linked security officers in northern Gaza a two-day ultimatum to relinquish their arms, according to a statement sent by text message and announcements made on Hamas-linked radio stations Wednesday.
The militant group said that if the security forces don‘t turn over their weapons by 7 P.M. Friday, they will take the weapons by force.
Eight Fatah men were killed in fierce fighting near the home of senior Fatah official Maher Mekdad. The Fatah official was able to escape, but Hamas took control of the area.
Hamas also seized control of the refugee camps in the central Gaza Strip, after it swept into the central Gaza headquarters of Abbas‘ powerful National Security Forces facing only token resistance.
An announcer on a Hamas radio station said the offensive would proceed to the Abbas‘ compound and the National Security Forces headquarters in Gaza City.
Hamas said Fatah militants fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the home of its deputy information minister, setting the house ablaze but causing no injuries.
Hamas said it also seized and bulldozed a key Fatah outpost that controls Gaza‘s main north-south road.
At least 25 people were killed and dozens wounded in Tuesday‘s fighting, bringing the death toll to roughly 50 since the latest round of violence broke out Monday morning.
Palestinian Foreign Minister Ziad Abu Amr warned on Wednesday that factional violence in Gaza could spread to the West Bank if nothing is done, but dismissed threats that Fatah might leave the government as speculation.
Abu Amr, in Tokyo for discussions on aid and regional issues with Japanese leaders, dismissed reports that Fatah had decided to withdraw from the government as "speculation."
Fatah announced Tuesday night that it was suspending its participation in the Palestinian unity government until the fighting stopped.
"Fatah so far has not decided what to do with Hamas and I don‘t think it makes very much sense to try to undermine the national unity government," Abu Amr, an independent, told a news conference.
Abu Amr blamed the deadly clashes on pressures imposed by outside forces.
"If you have two brothers, put them in a cage and deprive them of basic and essential needs for life, they will fight," Abu Amr told a news conference in Tokyo. "I don‘t think we should put the blame on the victim."
Abbas and Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh both made calls for restraint Tuesday, but they went largely unheeded.