By Ibrahim Barzak and Dalia Nammari
Associated Press
Sunday, August 3, 2008

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip, Aug. 2 -- Hamas forces battled Fatah-linked fighters with mortars and machine guns in a crowded Gaza neighborhood Saturday, leaving at least nine dead in the worst Palestinian infighting in nine months.

About 88 people were injured, 12 of them children, hospital officials said.

Loud explosions and gunfire could be heard throughout the day in the Gaza City neighborhood of Shijaiyeh, a stronghold of the Fatah-allied Hilles clan. Hamas has accused the clan of hiding suspects responsible for a car bombing last week that killed five activists of the radical Islamist group.

Hamas and the largely secular, Western-backed Fatah have waged a violent struggle for control of Gaza for years. But there have been few signs of Fatah resistance since Hamas seized control of the strip in June 2007.

Relations between the factions deteriorated sharply last week after the car bombing that killed Hamas fighters in Gaza, and each side has been cracking down on political opponents with growing intensity. In Gaza, Hamas has carried out mass arrests, as have Fatah loyalists of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank.

The Gaza clashes Saturday marked the deadliest internal Palestinian fighting since November, when Hamas police killed seven people in a Fatah-organized memorial rally for the late Yasser Arafat.

By Saturday afternoon, Hamas police had seized control of Shijaiyeh, home to some 100,000 people. Hundreds of police went house to house in search of weapons and suspects. In all, more than 50 people were arrested, Hamas said.