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KHAN YOUNIS - Unidentified gunmen dragged a judge from the governing Hamas Islamist movement out of a taxi and shot him dead in front of his courthouse in Gaza today, increasing fears of a Palestinian civil war.
The possibility of redoubled Israeli-Palestinian violence also loomed, with Israeli troops killing a Gaza gunman on the boundary fence in the first such incident since a November 26 truce.
Hamas said the slain civil court judge, Bassam al-Fara, also belonged to its armed wing. The death came two days after gunmen killed three sons of a Gaza intelligence chief linked to Hamas' rival faction Fatah, which is headed by President Mahmoud Abbas.
Witnesses who declined to be identified told Reuters that the gunmen had eaten breakfast in a nearby restaurant in the town of Khan Younis while waiting for Fara, 28, to arrive. They shot him at point blank range after pulling him from the car.
Hamas-Fatah violence has spiralled in Gaza and the occupied West Bank after attempts to form a coalition government failed.
Some Abbas aides have said he might use a speech on Saturday to call early elections to break the deadlock and ease Western sanctions imposed on the government because of Hamas' refusal to recognise Israel and renounce violence.
Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert declared a Gaza ceasefire last month in a bid to ease tensions and restart talks on ending a more than 6-year-old Palestinian revolt.
Wednesday's shooting of a Fatah gunman by troops who spotted him approaching the boundary fence marked the first killing in Gaza by Israeli forces during the truce. Gazan militants have fired almost daily rocket salvoes into Israel, but caused no damage.
Palestinian militants, who had threatened to abandon the ceasefire over several deadly raids by Israeli forces in the West Bank, did not immediately comment on the fence shooting.
Abbas, a cautious leader, is probably reluctant to stoke tensions with dramatic announcements at a time when emotions run high. Abbas aides said that, whatever his declarations on Saturday, he would likely leave the door open to internal talks.
Hamas, which accuses Fatah of trying to topple its government, blamed Fara's killing on a Fatah "death squad".
"The seekers of the coup in Fatah bear the responsibility for all actions of chaos taking place in the Palestinian streets," senior Hamas politician Mushir al-Masri told Reuters.
Fatah denied responsibility. But in a statement to Reuters, Fatah accused Fara of having been involved in the killing of one of its Gaza activists in October.
At least 10,000 people marched in Fara's funeral procession in Khan Younis. Hamas activists vowed revenge, shouting: "The servants of darkness will be found, stepped on and crushed."
Earlier, some 2000 Fatah gunmen marched to the president's Gaza City office and urged him to sack the government over the collapse in law and order. Before arriving, they blocked roads and fired automatic weapons into the air.
Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, a senior Hamas leader, criticised the deployment in Gaza of security forces affiliated to Abbas and said the movement's surprise election victory over Fatah in January should be accepted.
"The comprehensive solution to this situation is to respect the will of the Palestinian people," Haniyeh told a news conference in the Sudanese capital Khartoum, which he was visiting as part of his first Arab tour since taking office.
Haniyeh said he would return to Gaza on Thursday, though his tour was originally expected to keep him away until January.
In the West Bank town of Jenin, Palestinian security sources said police shot and killed a militant from a group belonging to Fatah after he had opened fire on them.
A senior official from Fatah has said the Hamas government bore responsibility for Monday's unprecedented attack on children, which has shocked even Palestinians inured to incessant conflict. Hamas has denied the movement was involved.
Besides internal political unrest, Gaza is riven with clan fighting and a surge in crime following the Western aid embargo that has deepened poverty.
- REUTERS
