GAZA CITY, 3 October 2006 — Two people were killed and 14 others wounded as gunbattles erupted last night between Fatah fighters and Hamas militiamen in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, a day after a deadly explosion of internal violence paralyzed the Gaza Strip.

The fighting was the latest in a series of sporadic battles throughout the day as tensions remained high between the two groups. Fatah fighters enforced a general strike in many West Bank towns in a show of strength against Hamas, while the Hamas-led government ordered all ministries closed to protest Fatah attacks on government buildings.

But the level of violence remained below the chaos and running street battles that killed nine people and wounded 100 others across Gaza on Sunday.

In an effort to reduce friction, Hamas pulled its militiamen out of Gaza’s major streets yesterday and sent them back to their normal posts.

“Gaza today is better, and moving toward calm,” Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas told his Cabinet yesterday afternoon, but said he feared violence in the West Bank, where Fatah fighters threatened to retaliate for the Gaza fighting.

“We reiterate to our people to be responsible, not to spread the circle of disagreements and conflict, and not to transfer events to other parts of the nation,” Haniyeh said.

Hours after he spoke, Fatah fighters marched through Rafah after evening prayers to protest the Hamas-led government and its militia, witnesses said. When they approached a militia post, a gunbattle broke out, and five people were wounded, one seriously, they said. The fighting ended after local Hamas and Fatah officials called on their supporters to back down.

But minutes later, a new battle erupted in a Fatah stronghold across town that killed one bystander and another unidentified person and left nine other people with bullet and shrapnel wounds. Fatah officials said Hamas militiamen opened fire on Fatah supporters as they drove near a roadblock. Hamas said its militia came under fire from the car and fought back.

An earlier gunbattle erupted at Gaza City’s main hospital yesterday morning when relatives of one of Sunday’s victims arrived to retrieve his body. Fatah gunmen accompanying them opened fire on Hamas militiamen patrolling the hospital. Patients and doctors ran for cover, but no one was hurt, hospital officials said.

In the northern West Bank city of Nablus, Fatah fighters shot at Deputy Prime Minister Nasser Shaer’s bodyguards as they rode in a government car, injuring two of them, said Shaer, who was not present during the attack. Hospital officials said a Fatah fighter was also injured.

In Jericho, a Fatah gunman trying to enforce the general strike shot a shopowner in the head, seriously wounding him, Fatah officials said. The wounded man was also a Fatah member, the officials said.

The latest round of violence began in Gaza on Sunday when the 3,500-man Hamas militia confronted members of the Fatah-dominated security forces who were protesting the government’s inability to pay their wages. Fatah fighters responded by torching the Cabinet building in Ramallah and trashing Hamas offices in the West Bank.

Hamas, which ousted Fatah in January parliamentary elections, formed the militia in April after losing a power struggle for control of the security forces with President Mahmoud Abbas, a Fatah leader elected separately last year.

While Hamas pulled its militia from the main streets, Abbas ordered the striking security officers to return to work. Their protest tent — a tangible source of tension with the Hamas government — lay empty outside the parliament building in Gaza yesterday. However, a similar tent outside the West Bank Parliament building in Ramallah was filled with protesters.

“The strike is still ongoing, and it seems that there is no end in sight,” said Bassem Hadaidah, a spokesman for the strikers.

The violence further dampened hopes for a coalition government between Fatah and Hamas, which was aimed at ending economic sanctions imposed on the Palestinian Authority after Hamas’ election victory. Those sanctions left the government unable to pay its 165,000 workers.

Coalition talks stalled as Abbas unsuccessfully pushed for Hamas to accept Western demands to moderate its violent ideology.

Fatah lawmaker Saeb Erekat, an Abbas confidant, dismissed the possibility of a quick return to talks.

— With input from agencies