Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas may have sacked the Hamas-Fatah coalition government and appointed a new prime minister, but the Gaza Strip is effectively under the control of Hamas. With the likelihood of two rival Palestinian administrations emerging, the West is considering easing sanctions on the West Bank.

After six days of ferocious fighting in the Gaza Strip, Hamas emerged triumphant over their Fatah rivals.

While Hamas appeared to be seeking conciliation with Abbas on Friday by granting amnesty to Fatah leaders in the Gaza Strip, Abbas appeared in no mood to bury the hatchet. On Friday he appointed Salam Fayyad, a former finance minister, as his new prime minister. The internationally respected Fayyad is an independent politician and a former World Bank executive.

The Hamas-Fatah coalition government had all but collapsed anyway, but on Thursday President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, made it official, firing Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas and declaring a state of emergency "because of the criminal war in the Gaza Strip ... and military coup."

Haniyeh brushed off that decision as "hasty" saying the situation was "not suitable for unilateral decisions." And he rejected the notion of a separate Hamas state: "The Gaza Strip is an indivisible part of the homeland and its residents are an integral part of the Palestinian people." He added that the Hamas militia would impose law and order "firmly, decisively and legally."

It now looks increasingly likely that there will be two rival Palestinian governments, as the new Fayyad-headed government will hardly be in a position to reverse the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice gave her full backing to Abbas, saying he had exercised his "lawful authority" and the European Commission also said it fully supported the president.

Easing Sanctions on the West Bank?

The United States and Israel are now reported to be considering rapidly easing sanctions in the occupied West Bank to bolster the emergency government being formed by President Abbas, Western and Israeli officials said on Friday.

"The fact that President Abbas has fired the Hamas government is a very positive move in our opinion, and makes it easier to deal with and help the moderates," Miri Eisin, spokeswoman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said Friday. Unlike Hamas, Fatah has recognized Israel's right to exist and signed past accords

A senior Israeli official told Reuters that Olmert and US President George W. Bush would discuss a series of "gestures" that could be taken quickly, including releasing the portion of the Palestinian Authority's tax revenues being withheld by Israel.

Meanwhile, the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip faces increased isolation. Some 1.4 million people live in the narrow coastal strip, while 2 million live in the West Bank. Now the Gaza Strip's residents look to be facing even worse hardship. The European Commission suspended tens of millions of Euros in humanitarian aid projects there on Thursday, a day after the United Nations said it would scale back on its food aid program following the murder of two of its Palestinian employees.

In all more than 90 people were killed in the fighting this week, which saw the numerically superior Fatah forces defeated by the better organized and motivated Hamas. Some 300 Fatah activists fled by boat to Egypt late on Thursday, with another 100 leaving on Friday morning, while others went into hiding.

Bitter Divisions and Settling of Scores

Fearful that the Hamas could build on the Gaza victory in the West Bank, Fatah have begun to crack down on the Islamic militants there. In the city of Nablus, Fatah men shot dead a Hamas member on Friday. On Thursday, Fatah militants ransacked and set fire to the office of Hamas lawmakers. The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, affiliated to Fatah has called for "martial law" in the West Bank and said its members "should consider the Hamas organization in all areas of the West Bank as outlaws."

The violence has revealed just how bitter the divisions are between the two Palestinian factions, particularly the battle for the Preventive Security headquarters on Thursday. It was from here that a brutal crackdown on Hamas was launched in 1996, and the Ismalists were wreaking revenge on Thursday, with gangland-style executions reported by witnesses and Fatah officials. "There is a history to it, a vendetta and a settling of scores," Palestinian lawmaker Hanan Ashrawi told Associated Press.

Little Prospect of International Peacekeepers

Meanwhile, talk of an international peacekeeping force entering Gaza seems to have dissipated almost as soon as it began, with the major powers resisting getting dragged into a civil war or letting their troops face Hamas attacks.

Both President Abbas and Israel's Prime Minister Olmert had contacted the UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon earlier in the week asking for UN peacekeepers, but it would seem that they were looking for two different things. Israel wanted to see the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt patrolled to prevent Hamas securing more arms, while Abbas wanted to stop the fighting in the Gaza Strip.

Hanan Ashrawi, the Palestinian lawmaker, rejected the idea of international peacekeepers being deployed in the Gaza Strip alone, saying it would be unacceptable for it to be treated differently to the West Bank. "We would really like to have a mechanism to stop the violence," she told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "But does anyone seriously think that any foreign troops would be willing to come here and stop the fighting?"

Spiegel.de