GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – The top Palestinian security official quit in exasperation Monday after a second day of firefights among Palestinian factions left four more people dead, including a truck driver delivering bread.
Residents frightened by the upsurge in violence holed up in their homes, leaving Gaza City’s streets largely deserted while rival security forces took up positions on rooftops and hundreds of gunmen in black ski masks put up checkpoints and stopped cars.
Universities were closed because of the violence, and many worried parents kept their children home from school.
The 2-month-old Hamas-Fatah unity government struggled to prevent Gaza from again descending into chaos. Government spokesman Ghazi Hamad announced that a truce had been reached at a late-night meeting of rival factions summoned by Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh. But a similar cease-fire Sunday night collapsed in hours.
With eight dead and about 70 wounded in fighting Sunday and Monday, Interior Minister Hani Kawasmeh resigned and accused leaders on both sides of thwarting his efforts to halt the violence.
The career civil servant was a compromise candidate for the top security post when the Fatah movement and the Islamic radicals of Hamas formed a unity government in March after months of factional fighting. His resignation was a new blow to the shaky coalition.
At the center of the new Palestinian fighting is a dispute over who controls the security forces. A majority of the 80,000 security officers in the West Bank and Gaza are loyal to moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the Fatah leader, while the more militant Hamas set up its own 6,000-strong militia last year.
Gazans found the latest violence more ominous than the previous round, saying it signaled the failure of the power-sharing deal between the Hamas and Fatah movements.
“Now they are starting from where they left off,” said Jamal Abu Shabaan, 21, who witnessed a gun battle outside his furniture store Sunday. “If they get to each others’ throats, they won’t let go this time.”
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