Hamas militiamen withdrew from the streets of Gaza Strip on Monday and returned to their normal posts after the worst day of internal violence since Hamas took control of the Palestinian government in March.
In the West Bank city of Ramallah, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah Party enforced a general strike, closing shops and private schools in a show of force against Hamas. For its part, the Hamas-led cabinet ordered all ministries closed to protest Fatah attacks on government offices.
Fatah gunmen also freed a Hamas official in the Finance Ministry they had briefly kidnapped, telling him his abduction was intended to send Hamas a message to end the iolence, Hamas officials said.
Gaza remained tense Monday, with many shops closed out of fear of renewed attacks.
Both Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas and Abbas appealed for calm. "These confrontations have crossed the red line, which we have avoided crossing for four decades," Abbas said in a speech on Palestinian TV.
Abbas called on the security officers to end their protest and for the Hamas militia, which the government formed after Abbas took control of all the official security branches, to leave the streets.
Late Sunday, Interior Minister Said Siyam, who is in charge of the militia, ordered it to withdraw, and by Monday morning the militiamen had stopped patrolling the streets and pulled back to their bases near government ministries and on some street corners.
In the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis, where the violence started, dozens of security officers patrolled the streets to maintain order.
Despite the appeals for calm, the Agricultural Ministry was torched early Monday, and a group of young students in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun stoned the house of a Hamas minister until his bodyguards chased them away by firing in the air.
