GAZA (Reuters) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's security forces fired on a Hamas rally in the West Bank and battles between the two factions erupted in Gaza on Friday, prompting a Hamas leader to accuse Abbas of starting a war.
Tensions reached their highest level in a decade, fuelling fears the Palestinians were on the verge of civil war after months of fruitless talks to form a unity government between the ruling Islamist Hamas faction and Abbas's once-dominant Fatah.
"What a war, Mahmoud Abbas, you are launching, first against God, and then against Hamas," Khalil al-Hayya, head of the Hamas faction in parliament, told 100,000 supporters at a rally in Gaza City.
Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas urged "national unity" in a speech to the crowd but did not explicitly call for calm as he has during previous surges in internal fighting.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061215/ts_nm/palestinians_dc