GAZA CITY, Gaza*--* Hamas fighters armed with guns and rocket launchers besieged two Fatah security headquarters Tuesday as deadly clashes threatened to topple the government and drive Gaza closer to civil war.
Gunmen from the radical Islamist movement ambushed two seats of the Fatah loyalist national security - the main Palestinian security force - in Gaza City and Jabaliya provoking clashes with those holed up inside.
Security officials and witnesses said that Hamas gunmen quickly abandoned the fight at the Gaza City base where security officers repelled them from storming inside, but that fighting was continuing at the larger base in Jabaliya.
Hamas' armed Ezzedine Al Qassam Brigades unilaterally declared "the northern Gaza Strip a closed military zone" under its control and called on members of the mainstream Fatah loyalist security forces to stay at home.
The attacks came after mortar shells slammed into Prime Minister Ismail Haniya's home and the seafront compound of President Mahmoud Abbas in the latest bout of fighting that has killed 18 people in 24 hours.
The apparently no-holds barred conflict threatens the very foundations of a Hamas-Fatah coalition that took office less than three months ago in a bid to halt the feuding that has killed nearly 180 people since December.
Gunmen from the radical Islamist movement ambushed two seats of the Fatah loyalist national security - the main Palestinian security force - in Gaza City and Jabaliya provoking clashes with those holed up inside.
Security officials and witnesses said that Hamas gunmen quickly abandoned the fight at the Gaza City base where security officers repelled them from storming inside, but that fighting was continuing at the larger base in Jabaliya.
Hamas' armed Ezzedine Al Qassam Brigades unilaterally declared "the northern Gaza Strip a closed military zone" under its control and called on members of the mainstream Fatah loyalist security forces to stay at home.
The attacks came after mortar shells slammed into Prime Minister Ismail Haniya's home and the seafront compound of President Mahmoud Abbas in the latest bout of fighting that has killed 18 people in 24 hours.
The apparently no-holds barred conflict threatens the very foundations of a Hamas-Fatah coalition that took office less than three months ago in a bid to halt the feuding that has killed nearly 180 people since December.

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