Clashes between rival Palestinian security forces across the Gaza Strip yesterday killed eight people and injured at least 100 in fighting over unpaid wages and stalled unity government talks.
The clashes took place as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice left for a tour of the Middle East this week to test the waters for a new push on Arab-Israeli peace.
Ms Rice left on Sunday night on a journey that takes her to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Israel and the Palestinian territories - her first trip to the region since a July visit at the height of the conflict between Israel and Hizbullah militants in Lebanon.
The 34 days of bombardment by Israel and rocket attacks by Hizbullah killed at least 1,100 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 157 Israelis, most of them soldiers.
The latest Gaza clashes stoked fears of civil war as the rival forces, loyal to either Hamas or President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, exchanged fire from rooftops near the parliament building in Gaza City and set ablaze several government offices in the area and in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
The Palestinian leadership remains split between Abbas and the Hamas-led government of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, which came to power in March after the Islamist movement trounced Mr Abbas's Fatah party in January elections.
The United States spearheaded a Western aid embargo against Hamas, demanding it recognise Israel, renounce violence and respect past peace accords before direct assistance resumes.
In a newspaper interview last week, Ms Rice laid out a strategy whose core element was to support Mr Abbas. The United States will not deal with Hamas, which it has branded a "terrorist" organisation.
Her ideas included helping Mr Abbas develop security forces; giving him more time to try to bridge the impasse with Hamas, which remains officially committed to the destruction of Israel; and channeling more aid to the Palestinians via an international mechanism that bypasses Hamas.