Hamas Seizing Control of Gaza Strip

Smoke rises during factional fighting between gunmen from the rivals Fatah and Hamas in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City Tuesday, June 12, 2007. Nineteen Palestinians have been killed over two days in a new spike in the yearlong Hamas-Fatah power struggle. Some people were shot at close range in street executions, others in shootouts that turned hospitals into battle grounds. Residents huddled indoors, and university exams were canceled. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra) (Khalil Hamra - AP)

Hamas fighters, firing rockets and mortar shells, took over the rooftops in nearby houses and cut off the roads to prevent reinforcements from arriving. They called on the beleaguered Fatah forces to surrender.

Hamas gunmen in high-rise buildings also fired at Abbas' Gaza office and house and his guard force returned fire. Abbas was in the West Bank at the time of the fighting.

During the battle at the Preventive Security Service base, both sides fired wildly from high-rise rooftops.

Dr. Wael Abdel Jawad, a physician trapped in his apartment, said he heard Fatah fighters shouting at colleagues on an adjacent roof to send them more ammunition.

"All of us are terrified here. Shooting came through the windows of our apartment, children are screaming. We are hearing from a nearby mosque the call by Hamas to surrender," he said.

"Those fighters on rooftops are like Don Quixote, tilting at windmills. They don't know where to shoot," he said.

In another dramatic battle in Gaza City, hundreds of members of the Fatah-allied Bakr clan, which had fought fiercely for two days, surrendered to masked Hamas gunmen and were led, arms raised, to a nearby mosque. Footage broadcast on Hamas' Al Aqsa TV showed some of the Bakr women trying to enter the mosque. Hamas gunmen later drove off with some of the Bakr fighters, witnesses said.

Two women from the clan tried to leave the area to take a sick girl to a hospital and were shot and killed by jittery Hamas gunmen, a clan member said.

After nightfall, Hamas militants blew up the house of one of the Bakr clan's leaders, witnesses said.

Early Thursday, Fatah officials said their forces withdrew from some bases in central Gaza and destroyed them, rather than allow them to fall into Hamas hands.

In Washington, U.S. officials condemned the fighting.

"Violence certainly does not serve the interest of the Palestinian people, and it's not going to bring the peace and prosperity that they deserve," White House spokesman Tony Snow said.