GAZA CITY - Thousands of Palestinians carried bodies draped in yellow flags through pouring rain Friday in a funeral procession for seven Fatah members killed by Hamas gunmen. Fatah said it was suspending talks with its rival until the assailants were brought to justice.
Meanwhile, assailants outside a Gaza mosque gunned down a Muslim preacher moments after he delivered a sermon warning that God would punish those responsible for the seven killings.
Dozens of Fatah gunmen marched in the funeral procession for Col. Mohammed Ghayeb and six of his bodyguards, who were killed Thursday in the bloodiest single battle in weeks of factional fighting in the Gaza Strip.
The mourners fired shots in the air and called for vengeance against the Islamic militant group Hamas, which is locked in a power struggle with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party over control of the Palestinian government.
The killings prompted an urgent meeting early Friday between Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas. Though the two sides agreed to pull back their forces, the meeting failed to cool raging tensions in the seaside territory.
"We are going to end all armed displays in the streets," Haniyeh said after the meeting.
Abbas had no comment after the meeting. Fatah later blamed Hamas Interior Minister Said Siyam's security service for the attack and said there would be no further attempts at reconciliation between the movements until the killers were brought to justice.
"There will be no dialogue in the shadow of killing and terrorism practiced by Hamas," said a Fatah statement released in Gaza. "Said Siyam is responsible for the execution and the cold-blooded murder to which our martyrs in Jabalya were subjected."
There was no claim of responsibility for the killing Friday of cleric Adel Nasar, who was shot by men in a car after he gave his sermon at a mosque. Nasar was not openly affiliated with any political party, but he often spoke against Hamas in his sermons.
More than two dozen people have been killed in a month of fighting in Gaza between Hamas and Fatah.
Ghayeb was on the phone to Palestine TV just moments before his death Thursday, appealing for help. "They are killers," he said of the Hamas gunmen. "They are targeting the house, children are dying, they are bleeding. For God's sake, send an ambulance, we want an ambulance, somebody move."
The battle outside the house raged for much of the day, leaving eight dead in total and about three dozen wounded, including eight children and Ghayeb's wife.
When Friday's funeral procession passed Ghayeb's house, its walls blackened and pocked with bullet holes, a masked militant fired bursts into the air and called to avenge his death.
"The hand which fired against him and his comrades will be cut off," he shouted.
In several places in the West Bank late Thursday, Fatah militants attacked Hamas offices and vehicles. One Hamas activist was wounded, Palestinian security officials said.
Speaking to reporters after Friday prayers in Gaza City, Haniyeh urged Palestinians not to let the violence spill over to the West Bank and to focus on fighting against Israel. "Our fight is not an internal one, it's against the occupation," Haniyeh said.
His words were echoed by senior West Bank Fatah official Jibril Rajoub, speaking in the town of Bilin to supporters celebrating the movement's 42nd anniversary.
"Our battle with Hamas is not a battle of assassination, kidnapping or revenge. Our battle with Hamas is a democratic moral battle," he said. "Our battle is with the occupation, not with each other."
On Thursday, Israeli forces entered the West Bank town of Ramallah in the first major army raid since Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Abbas agreed two weeks ago to try to ease tensions.
The two-hour raid turned Ramallah into a battlefield with dozens of cars smashed and vegetable carts overturned. Four Palestinians were killed and 20 wounded. The Israelis left after detaining four suspects, all of whom were later released, the army said.
The clash, which came only hours before Olmert attended a summit with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, embarrassed the Israeli leader, who apologized for any civilian casualties and said the operation was intended to protect Israel from terrorist attacks.
"Things developed in a way that could not have been predicted in advance. If innocent people were hurt, this was not our intention," Olmert said in Egypt.
Israeli security officials said the government did not know ahead of time about the Ramallah raid, which was supposed to be a routine arrest operation and did not have to be approved by the defense minister. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
The summit had been intended to push for new Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts, but was overshadowed by the violence. Standing next to Olmert in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheik, Mubarak condemned the raid. "Israel's security cannot be achieved through military force but by serious endeavors toward peace," he said.
Abbas said in a harshly worded statement that Israel's peace promises rang hollow in light of the raid and demanded $5 million in compensation for the damage to shops and cars in Ramallah.
The apparent target of the raid, Fatah militant Rabia Hamed, escaped with serious wounds. A photographer for the local news agency Maan was critically wounded.
