Ignoring a truce and Arab mediation offers, Hamas and Fatah fighters exchanged gunfire in upscale beachfront neighborhoods Saturday, and Hamas gunmen threatened to attack high-rise buildings unless residents force rival snipers off their rooftops. Bursts of gunfire alternated with periods of calm, and in areas of Gaza City not affected by the fighting, people tried to go about their lives. Boys played soccer in the streets, horse-drawn carts maneuvered through alleys and shoppers stocked up on supplies for the next round of battle. Nasser Mushtaha, who owns a high-rise near President Mahmoud Abbas' compound, said members of Abbas' Presidential Guard were posted on his roof and at the entrance to the building. He said he received phone calls from Hamas members, who warned they would blow up the building unless the troops left. Some of the guardsmen refused. Mushtaha complained about his building being used as an outpost. "Who will protect us? What is our fault? We are neither Fatah nor Hamas," he said, adding that dozens of windows had already been shattered by bullets.
In the Sheik Radwan neighborhood, Ali Ustaz used a lull to buy a battery-powered radio so he could follow developments despite frequent power cuts. "There is no hope for a solution," Ustaz said, referring to an elusive power-sharing deal between Abbas, the Fatah leader, and the Islamic militant Hamas, the two factions grappling for control of the Palestinian government.