GAZA CITY, 16 December 2006 — Hamas and Fatah gunmen clashed at a West Bank mosque and on Gaza Strip streets yesterday, deepening factional violence a day after gunmen shot at the convoy of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas.

Haniyeh urged the Palestinian people to unite. “I appeal to you to uphold national unity and preserve Palestinian blood. Let’s be a united people for the sake of liberating the land and the holy sites,” Haniyeh said in a speech to thousands of supporters in Gaza who rallied to celebrate the 19th anniversary of Hamas’ founding.

The street battles came as Hamas accused a powerful Fatah leader of orchestrating the attack on Haniyeh — and a powerful Hamas politician called for the Fatah strongman’s assassination. Leaders of both groups warned in recent days that the spiraling violence threatened to bring the Palestinians to a civil war.

The fighting damped celebrations of the anniversary. However, the Islamic group pushed ahead with its rallies, and about 70,000 loyalists gathered at a stadium in Gaza City yesterday afternoon, cheering wildly, sobbing and firing in the air when Haniyeh arrived flanked by more than 50 armed bodyguards.

“We joined this movement to become martyrs, not ministers,” Haniyeh declared in a fiery speech, referring to the attack on his entourage the previous day.

The fighting yesterday in the normally peaceful city of Ramallah began when Hamas supporters tried to march toward the center of town, where Fatah-allied police had deployed to prevent a planned Hamas celebration.

In a scene witnessed by Associated Press photographers, police formed a cordon around a Hamas mosque to prevent those inside from marching — then beat the activists with clubs and fired rifles in the air when they tried to leave. The marchers fought back, hurling stones and bottles at police, who fired into the crowd, sending Hamas supporters and bystanders scrambling for cover.

Thirty-two people were wounded by stones and gunfire, hospital officials said.

In Gaza City, masked Hamas gunmen waged a battle with Fatah-allied police near a security post in the middle of the city. The four-minute shootout sent civilians running for cover.

The showdown, a block from the home of Mohammed Dahlan, broke out shortly after Hamas accused the Fatah strongman of masterminding the attack on Haniyeh on Thursday at the Gaza-Egypt border terminal.

The violence at the terminal erupted after Israel barred Haniyeh from returning to Gaza after a foreign tour, insisting he first leave behind $35 million he collected there, saying it would go to fund terror activities. Angry Hamas fighters stormed the terminal and traded fire with security forces stationed there, who are loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Fatah’s leader.

After Haniyeh left the money in Egypt and was allowed to cross into Gaza, unidentified men began firing at him, killing one of his bodyguards and wounding his son and 26 others.

At the bodyguard’s funeral, Khalil Al-Hayeh, head of the Hamas bloc in Parliament, told mourners that Dahlan was trying to instigate a coup against the government — and called for his head. Al-Hayeh exhorted the crowd to “get us the plotters of the coup.” “We will, we will,” the crowd replied. Al-Hayeh also said Hamas would act with an iron fist against all of those involved in the attack.

Dahlan rejected the allegations as “false and baseless,” calling them an attempt by Hamas leaders “to mask their sweeping failure to manage Palestinian political and social life.” He also called on Fatah supporters to avoid any confrontations with Hamas.

Various other Hamas officials accused Palestinian collaborators with Israel, Abbas and the US of involvement in the shooting.

Factional infighting escalated after Abbas declared earlier this month that his efforts to form a coalition government with Hamas, which controls the Cabinet and Parliament, had failed. Abbas, who was elected separately last year, had hoped a so-called unity government would end crippling international economic sanctions imposed on the Palestinian Authority after Hamas won January parliamentary elections.

Abbas, a relative moderate, was to address the Palestinians today on his plans for ending the impasse and was expected to threaten early elections. A call for new elections, which Hamas says are illegal, would likely further inflame the situation.

— With input from agencies