Gaza City: A mob of up to 2,000 furious Fatah supporters took to the streets on Friday, burning cars, firing guns and demanding the resignation of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas after the militant group Hamas trounced their party in parliamentary elections.
Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president, was in the West Bank, where he called on Hamas to form a new government after its election landslide snatched power this week from Fatah's ruling old guard.
Waving yellow Fatah flags in the flickering light of bonfires, protesters swarmed around Abbas' home in Gaza City, where they shot in the air and accused him of being a "collaborator" with Israel.
"We don't want to join the Hamas government" demonstrators chanted, according to The Associated Press. "We don't want corrupt leadership! We want reform, and we want to fire all the corrupt."
The crowd moved to nearby Palestinian legislative buildings, where protesters set a van on fire and scaled walls, trying to force their way into the compound. Demonstrators outnumbered uniformed police on the scene.
Earlier, Abbas made a public request to Hamas leaders.
"I would ask the party that won the most votes in parliamentary elections to form the next government," Abbas said. "Until now, we haven't asked anyone to form the government. We are carrying on with contact with all factions, and of course we will ask the party that won the majority to form the government."
Post-election tensions also sparked fighting Friday in the Gaza town of Khan Yunis, with three people wounded in a gunbattle between supporters of Fatah and Hamas, Palestinian security authorities said.
On Friday evening, fresh clashes erupted in Khan Yunis between the two parties' supporters, wounding four, authorities said.
There also were scuffles Thursday between the groups' backers in the West Bank town of Ramallah, seat of the Palestinian government.
Many in the Palestinian government already have given up their posts, with Abbas accepting the resignation of Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei, and the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority Cabinet also resigning, said Fatah lawmaker Saeb Erakat.
Hamas' victory Wednesday drove the Mideast peace process into uncharted territory.
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Election officials said Hamas won 76 seats in the 132-seat Palestinian Legislative Council.
Fatah, which has been in power for about 40 years, won 43 seats, and a handful of fringe parties and independent candidates won the remaining 13, officials said.
Abbas urged Hamas to keep peace negotiations moving forward, while Israeli and US leaders indicated that little progress was possible unless Hamas denounces violence and disarms.
The changing of the Palestinian guard represents a stark shift in ideologies: Abbas has long been a conduit of the White House-backed road map to Middle East peace, including the so-called two-state solution proposing a Palestinian state existing alongside Israel.
Hamas, however, has called for Israel's destruction, and the United States, Israel and the European Union consider it a terrorist organization.
Moussa Abu Marzouk, deputy chief of the Hamas political bureau, said Friday that Abbas "has a political direction that we had never agreed with at any stage. Hamas' political ways and stands are known." He said the group would do "what is best for the Palestinian people."
Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar, speaking outside a mosque Friday, said, "Israel has nothing to give for the Palestinian people."
He said it was a waste of time for the Palestinian Authority to speak with Israel, and if Israel "has something to fulfill the basic demands of the Palestinian people concerning the occupied territories, concerning the detainees, concerning the question of Jerusalem and other national interests, we are going to re-evaluate these arguments."
Marzouk suggested the possibility of future discussions regarding disarmament, though he set a high standard. Responding to calls from Israel and much of the West for Hamas to disarm, he said, "Europe and the United States must ask Israel to withdraw from Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem according to international legitimacy before they ask Hamas to disarm."
The election results prompted Israel's Cabinet to hold an emergency meeting Thursday and to release a statement afterward saying, "The state of Israel will not negotiate with a Palestinian administration if its members include an armed terrorist organization that calls for the destruction of the state of Israel; in any case, Israel will continue to fight terrorism with a heavy hand, everywhere."
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In Washington, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the "contradiction" of Hamas having "one foot in politics and one foot in terror" must be "resolved" as the political process in the region unfolds.
"There's a Palestinian constitutional process that is now under way in terms of the formation of a new government," McClellan said. "We'll see how that process unfolds and see how that government forms."
But he echoed President Bush's comments from Thursday, saying, "our views are very clear when it comes to Hamas: We don't deal with Hamas because Hamas is a terrorist organization."
Bush, whose Middle East policy features support for emerging democracies, said Thursday he would not deal with Hamas unless it renounced terrorism.
On Friday, the White House announced there might be economic repercussions in store for Hamas, as the Bush administration is reviewing its aid packages to the Palestinians.
"To be very clear, we do not provide money to terrorist organizations," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. "We will take a look at the full spectrum of our aid programs."
The Palestinians have received more than $1.5 billion in US aid through the US Agency for International Development, which provides funding for humanitarian and development endeavors abroad. Most of the money goes to nongovernmental organizations and aid groups for specific projects.
USAID gave the Palestinians $225 million in direct assistance last year and another $88 million to the UN to help refugees. Bush, on three occasions, has waived restriction on giving money directly to the Palestinian Authority, providing the organization with $90 million in direct support.
The White House has budgeted $150 million in USAID assistance to Palestinians and another $84 million via the UN.
McCormack acknowledged the Palestinians are poor and in dire need of humanitarian aid, but insisted that aid must be delivered according to US policy.
The issue will be discussed Monday, McCormack said, when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice meets with Russia, the European Union and the United Nations on the sidelines of a conference addressing Afghanistan in London, England.
Likud party leader Benjamin Netanyahu, who is running for Israeli prime minister, said the Hamas victory is "bad news no matter how they dress it up" and likened the militant group to Iran, whose president also has called for the destruction of Israel.
He said that for Israel to discuss peace seriously with the Palestinians, Hamas would have to change its philosophy.
Israel reached out to two moderate Arab neighbors Friday, pushing for support in its confrontation with the new Hamas-led government.
Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert phoned King Abdullah of Jordan and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, telling each that Israel is concerned about the results of the parliamentary elections, according to Olmert's office.
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