Hamas, Fatah clash in deepening violence By IBRAHIM BARZAK, Associated Press Writer Gunmen allied with Hamas and Fatah clashed at a West Bank mosque and in Gaza Strip streets on Friday, deepening factional violence a day after gunmen shot at the convoy of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas. The street battles came as Hamas accused a powerful Fatah leader of orchestrating the attack on Haniyeh — and a powerful Hamas politician called for the Fatah strongman's assassination. Leaders of both groups have warned that the spiraling violence threatens to bring the Palestinians to civil war. The clashes in Gaza City and the West Bank town of Ramallah marred celebrations Friday marking the 19th anniversary of Hamas' founding. However, the Islamic militant group pushed ahead with its rallies, and about 70,000 loyalists gathered at a stadium in Gaza City, cheering wildly, sobbing and firing in the air when Haniyeh arrived flanked by more than 50 armed bodyguards. "We joined this movement to become martyrs, not ministers," Haniyeh declared in a fiery speech, referring to the attack on his entourage the previous day. The fighting Friday in the normally peaceful city of Ramallah began when Hamas supporters tried to march toward the town center, where Fatah-allied police had deployed to prevent a planned Hamas celebration. In a scene witnessed by Associated Press photographers, police formed a cordon around a Hamas mosque to prevent those inside from marching, then beat them with clubs and fired their rifles in the air when the activists tried to leave. The marchers fought back, throwing stones and bottles at the police, some of whom fired into the crowd. Thirty-two people were wounded by stones and gunfire, hospital officials said. In Gaza City, masked Hamas gunmen waged battle with Fatah-allied police near a security post. The four-minute shootout sent civilians running for cover. There were no reports of injuries. The showdown, a block from the home of Mohammed Dahlan, broke out shortly after Hamas accused the Fatah strongman of orchestrating the attack on Haniyeh on Thursday at the Gaza-Egypt border terminal. The latest round of fighting erupted Monday with a drive-by shooting that killed the three small children of a Fatah security official and continued Wednesday with the gangland-style execution of a Hamas judge. On Thursday, Haniyeh rushed home from a trip abroad to try to quell the violence. But Israel ordered the Rafah crossing closed to keep Haniyeh from bringing in an estimated $35 million he had collected abroad to help alleviate the Palestinian financial crisis. Israeli officials said Haniyeh could return to Gaza without the money, which it said was to be used for terror attacks. Maria Telleria, spokeswoman for European monitors at the crossing, said Haniyeh left the funds in Egypt. Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh told Israel's Army Radio that government officials made the right decision not to let Haniyeh bring the money into Gaza, adding that if Haniyeh had been killed, "I wouldn't put up a mourning tent." While Haniyeh was delayed at the crossing, angry Hamas militants stormed the border terminal and fought with security forces stationed there who are loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas, Fatah's leader. When Haniyeh finally crossed, unidentified men began firing toward him. One of his bodyguards was killed and his son and 26 others were wounded. At the bodyguard's funeral, Khalil al-Hayeh, head of the Hamas bloc in parliament, told mourners that Dahlan was trying to instigate a coup against the government and called for his head. Al-Hayeh exhorted the crowd to "get us the plotters of the coup." "We will, we will," the crowd replied. Dahlan rejected the allegations as "false and baseless," calling them an attempt by Hamas leaders "to mask their sweeping failure to manage Palestinian political and social life." He also called on Fatah supporters to avoid any confrontations with Hamas. Various other Hamas officials accused Palestinian collaborators with Israel, Abbas and the U.S. of involvement in the shooting. The violence came amid a political deadlock between Abbas and the Hamas-led Cabinet and parliament following failed efforts to form a unity government. Abbas hoped such a government would end crippling international economic sanctions imposed on the Palestinian Authority after Hamas won January elections. Hamas, responsible for dozens of deadly suicide bombings in Israel, is listed as a terror group by the U.S. and EU. Abbas, a relative moderate, was to address the Palestinians on Saturday on his plans for ending the impasse and was expected to threaten early elections. A call for new elections, which Hamas says is illegal and has likened to a coup attempt, would likely further inflame the situation.