By Donald Macintyre
The Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh refused to accept his dismissal as Prime Minister yesterday, but called for an end to reprisals against the rival Fatah organisation after five days of carnage in the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced the appointment of Salam Fayad, affiliated to neither Hamas or Fatah, and admired in the West for his political moderation and financial efficiency, to head a new emergency cabinet.
There was some looting by both civilians and militants in Mr Abbas' Gaza compound, one of the last Fatah bastions to have been seized late on Thursday night, and now decorated with green Hamas flags.
Hamas militants showed reporters patches of blood where they said two of Mr Abbas's guards had shot themselves rather than surrender. Fatah said they had been killed by gunmen.
But after the summary executions of the past week, Hamas released 10 Fatah security officials taken captive in Gaza for their role in what the Islamic faction has repeatedly described as a coup against its role in government. Mr Haniyeh, welcomed by celebratory gunfire at one of several Hamas rallies in Gaza yesterday, urged continued dialogue between the factions.
In practice, the remit of the prime ministerial post - which is of severely limited power because of Israel's tight control of the occupied Palestinian territories - will now only apply across the West Bank because of Hamas' clear victory in this week's infighting in Gaza.
But Mr Fayad's appointment may help what appeared last night to be a developing Western and Israeli strategy of behaving more emolliently towards Mr Abbas and other non-Hamas politicians in the West Bank, while continuing to freeze out Gaza and its leadership by the Islamic faction.
On the one hand, the rout of Fatah in the five days of bloody conflict, which cost the lives of at least 80 Palestinians, is a devastating blow to the US strategy of aiding Fatah forces with weapons and training to help it defeat Hamas by military means in Gaza.
On the other, the collapse of the "national unity" coalition between Fatah, which was brokered three months ago by Saudi Arabia and intended to prevent civil war in Gaza, is welcome to both the US and Israel, which opposed it from the outset.
The US is widely believed to have urged Mr Abbas to dissolve the government rather than agree to Hamas demands to take control of the security services as a price of a ceasefire.
* The British hostage Alan Johnston could be freed in the coming hours, the Associated Press reported last night, quoting someone close to the negotiations. Hamas promised to seek the release of Mr Johnston, a BBC journalist who was kidnapped three months ago, after seizing control of the Gaza Strip.
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