RAMALLAH, West Bank — Clashes between rival Palestinian factions spread to the West Bank on Monday as armed followers of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement ransacked and set fire to the offices of the Hamas-led government and briefly abducted a Hamas lawmaker.
Amid fears the violence might escalate, Abbas commanded security forces to restore order after the series of clashes, which began in the Gaza Strip earlier in the day and then moved to the West Bank.
In the southern Gaza town of Rafah, Hamas fighters attacked a building belonging to the Preventive Security Service, a large police force dominated by Fatah. Hamas militants there also opened fire with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades, sparking a shootout that left a bystander dead and 15 people injured.
The attacks occurred after a Hamas militant was killed during a shootout between Hamas fighters and Preventive Security Service members in Rafah.
Later in the day, hundreds of gunmen loyal to Abbas fired shots and trashed the offices of the Hamas-led Cabinet in the West Bank city of Ramallah, igniting a fire in the Cabinet building that was quickly put out. The group, including many members of the Palestinian security forces, also opened fire on the Palestinian parliament building in Ramallah. No injuries were reported.
The clashes marked a significant spread of the often-violent, months-long power struggle between Hamas, the radical Islamic group that gained control of the Palestinian government after winning elections in January, and the once-dominant Fatah movement led by Abbas.
Sporadic shootouts between gunmen affiliated with Hamas and Fatah have left more than a dozen people dead in recent weeks. But until now, most of the violence has been in Gaza, not in the West Bank, which forms most of the Palestinian territories and where Fatah is stronger.
After attacking the parliament building, armed Fatah men destroyed furniture and computers in a Hamas office in Ramallah and, separately, kidnapped Khalil Rabai, a Hamas legislator, from a street here.
Rabai, from the West Bank city of Hebron, was released unharmed a little over an hour later and taken by authorities to Abbas' presidential compound in Ramallah. Abbas was in Gaza City at the time.
After news of Rabai's abduction, mosques in Gaza aired calls for Hamas followers to take to the streets in protest.
