Fitting

What do you get when you get a whole bunch of Fatah supporters gathering for the dedication of a mausoleum for terrorist Yasir Arafat in Hamas controlled Gaza?

Gun battles. Lots of them.

Fatah officials accused Hamas forces of opening fire from the nearby Islamic University. Hamas said its men had come under fire from Fatah gunmen and shot back.

A sea of yellow Fatah flags and waves of emotion had filled a Gaza square for the biggest assembly Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's secular faction has held in the territory since Hamas Islamists routed its fighters in violence last June.

But as gunfire rang out and grew into what Hamas described as battles with Fatah fighters, even members of the crowd who had initially stood their ground bolted for cover.

In an earlier incident near the scene of the rally, Fatah activists said a Hamas security man fired at a vehicle carrying people to the assembly, killing one passenger. Medical workers said a body with gunshot wounds arrived at Gaza's morgue.

Hamas said he might have been killed by Fatah fire.

Well, what did you expect? Wine and roses?

Let's not forget that this whole gathering was to celebrate the "honor" of Yasir Arafat. As head of Fatah and the PLO, he ran the Palestinian terrorist organization and while lauded with all manner of honorific including a Nobel Peace Prize, he actually did nothing to advance the cause of peace and rejected statehood when presented the opportunity in 2000 at Camp David. Arafat always held out hope beyond all hope that he could outlast Israel's will to exist, and place the Palestinian state on Israel's ruins. He was never about peaceful coexistence and a two-state solution. His endgame, and that of Fatah and Hamas to this day, has always been about supplanting Israel with a Palestinian state.

UPDATE:
Shug at LGF provides the following link to video from Gaza.

UPDATE:
The latest casualty toll is five dead and 31 injured.

UPDATE:
Make that 6+ dead and 150+ injured.

Palestinians reported of at lease six dead in the clashes. According to reports from Palestinian TV, nine Palestinians were killed and nearly 150 injured, 10 of them sustaining serious wounds.

Hamas security officials said they fired toward protesters who threw stones at security compounds. Hamas police were positioned on rooftops around Gaza City, and protesters were seen running for cover at street corners.

No rubber bullets here. They were firing live ammo - with the intent to injure and kill. This wasn't about warning protestors away. It was about showing who's boss.