In the bloodiest outbreak of factional violence since the Islamists of Hamas violently ousted their secular rivals of Fatah from control of the Gaza Strip two years ago, six Palestinians were killed on May 31st in a shoot-out in the West Bank city of Oalqilya. This time Hamas was the target, when the security forces of the Palestinian Authority (pa), which is run by Fatah, killed two Hamas militants who rejected Fatah's authority and lost three of their own men (and a bystander).rnMost pointedly, the fight occurred just days after the pa's president, Mahmoud Abbas, had assured President Barack Obama on a visit to Washington that the Palestinians were meeting their obliga-tions-particularly to disavow violence-under the tattered road map towards Israeli-Palestinian peace that was unfurled by George Bush in 2002. The latest factional fighting makes it even less likely that a Palestinian unity government will be formed any time soon, even though that is a prerequisite for resuming meaningful peace talks between Israel and Palestinians.
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