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First of all: Sorry for to much stuff about Palestine, but I have been living there for a while.. And so I'm really sad/upset about the recent development there (even I'm not surprised, what's going on right now - not really..).

After Hamas' today's "victories" - they took over Gaza City, Khan Yunis, Rafah - it seems that tomorrow - possibly - the battle about the Gaza Strip will be over and, according to the propaganda of Hamas, a new Islamic State (eeh, Gaza more Islamic than before???) is born. According to informations I got just few hours ago Hamas activists are publishing leaflets like that: "That's just the beginning of the liberation of our home-land! Soon we will liberate the entire occupied Palestine! From Gaza to Ramallah, from the Red Sea to el-Quds (Jerusalem), from el-Quds to Haifa and Buhairet Tabariyya (Sea of Galilee/Yam Kinerreth).."
So if it goes after the ideas of Hamas, what we saw in the last days.. it's just the beginning (eeh, possibly they forgot to expect the IDF??!!).

Anyway.. here the latest developments:

Short before Hamas captured today in the morning Fatah's Preventive Security headquarters they announced: "We'll execute Fatah leaders" (Ynet)..

Hamas seizes intelligence service building in Gaza City (Haaretz/IL)
 
Hamas fighters captured the second of four major Fatah command centers in Gaza City on Thursday, bringing the militant group closer to their goal of complete conquest of the Gaza Strip.

Hamas gunmen planted the Islamic group's green flag on the roof of the intelligence services building shortly after taking control over the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

Earlier in the day, Hamas overran the Preventive Security building, and witnesses, a doctor and Fatah officials said several Fatah fighters were shot in the head.

 
Witnesses said Hamas gunmen dragged Fatah militants from the building and shot them in the head.

The Islamist group later called on Fatah fighters to surrender another key security installation in Gaza City within the hour. The call to give up the National Security compound was broadcast on Hamas radio.

"We are telling our people that the past era has ended and will not return," Islam Shahawan, a spokesman for Hamas' militia, told Hamas radio. "The era of justice and Islamic rule has arrived."

Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, heralded what he called Gaza's second liberation, after Israel's 2005 evacuation of the coastal strip.

"This time it was liberated from the herds of the collaborators," he said of Fatah, which has pursued peace negotiations with Israel. "Last time, it was liberated from the herds of the settlers."

Hamas gunmen broke through Fatah defenses at the compound in Gaza City on Thursday morning. They fired rocket-propelled grenades at the compound, provoking return fire from Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' presidential guard.

The rival factions have been engaged in bloody battles since Sunday, resulting in the deaths of at least 70 people. By noon Thursday, at least eight people had been killed. Al-Jazeera TV reported early Thursday afternoon that the death toll had climbed to at least 16.

Fatah officials said seven of their fighters were shot dead in the street outside Preventive Security building. A witness, Jihad Abu Ayad, said the men were being killed before their wives and children.

"They are executing them one by one," Abu Ayad said. "They are carrying one of them on their shoulders, putting him on a sand dune, turning him around and shooting."

Some of the Hamas fighters kneeled down outside the building, touching their foreheads to the ground in prayer. Others led Fatah fighters out of the building, some of them shirtless or in their underwear, holding their arms in the air. Several of the Fatah men flinched as the crack of gunfire split the air.

Abbas gives Fatah order to fight back

An aide to Abbas said earlier Thursday that the Fatah leader had issued the first orders to his elite guard to strike back against Hamas fighters.

Fatah forces had previously lashed out at Abbas, saying he left them with no directions and no support in the fight. Abbas' strongman in Gaza, Mohammed Dahlan, had been in Cairo for medical treatment. He returned to the West Bank city of Ramallah on Thursday afternoon.

Numerically superior Fatah forces have been crumbling fast under the onslaught by the better-armed and better-disciplined Hamas fighters.

"There will be no dialogue with Fatah, only the sword and the rifle," Nezar Rayyan, a senior Hamas official, told Hamas radio Thursday. "God willing, we will lead the Friday prayer in the president's office, and transform the [Gaza City] security complex into a big mosque."

Before dawn Thursday, Fatah fighters abandoned positions in central Gaza, then blew them up rather than turn them over as Hamas forces advanced.

Gaza hospitals were operating without water, electricity or blood units. Even holed up inside their homes, Gazans weren't able to escape fighting that turned so many apartment buildings into battlefields.

Angered by the rout of their comrades in the Gaza fighting, Palestinian security forces in the West Bank allied to Abbas have arrested at least three dozen Hamas gunmen.

Fatah gunmen shot and wounded three Hamas activists after kidnapping them. One of the wounded was identified as a Hamas member of Ramallah's municipal council and a second as a Hamas preacher from a nearby village.

Fatah leaders said a decision was made by security commanders to crack down on Hamas in the West Bank, to prevent it from taking any positions in that territory, a Fatah stronghold.

Abbas met Thursday with the decision-making bodies of the organization and the PLO, and was to make an important announcement later, aides said.

One aide, speaking on condition of anonymity because no decision had been made, said Abbas was considering dissolving the governing coalition with Hamas.

Earlier in the week, Fatah ministers suspended their activities in the government due to the Gaza violence, but stopped short of dismantling the partnership.

The unity government was formed in March in a bid to stem a previous round of violence, and in the hopes of easing the international boycott imposed in the wake of the Hamas election victory in January 2006. Neither aim was achieved.

The fighting continued despite an agreement Wednesday night by Abbas and Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas of the need to bring an end to the fighting between their respective parties.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/870763.html

Related articles/news:

☞ Fatah forces crumble in Gaza (Guardian/UK)

☞ Hamas tightens control in Gaza (al-Jazeera)