Fatah members were fleeing Gaza Friday as Hamas began trying to round up the remaining elements of the rival faction, Hamas radio reported.
According to Hamas, an unknown number of Fatah officials have left the territory and crossed into Egypt.
The developments came as Hamas was consolidating its power in Gaza a day after claiming control over Gaza City's presidential compound, the final symbol of Palestinian Authority power there.
On Friday, Hamas gunmen were seen going through Fatah-dominated areas, looking for wanted men and collecting weapons, according to CNN's Talal Abu-Rahman.
He reported that several Fatah members, including senior field commanders had been detained.
Loud speakers coming from Gaza City mosques also called for Fatah officials to turn themselves in.
On Thursday, President Mahmoud Abbas, of Fatah, dissolved the Hamas-led Palestinian unity government.
The emergency decree dismissed Prime Minister Ismail Haniya and announced that an interim government staffed by Fatah would be created.
The president vowed to hold new elections "as soon as the situation on the ground permits," Abbas adviser Tayeb Abdel Rahim said.
But Haniya, whose militant Islamic party won control of the Palestinian parliament in 2006, rejected the "hasty" decree and said his government would remain in office.
"Our presence in the government came about from democratic and popular will and through the ballot boxes," he said in a late-night speech. "We restate that we will continue to follow democratic conduct and respect the political system and all of its components which came through the elections."
After four days of intense fighting that left at least 70 Palestinians dead, Hamas fighters waved their green banners atop the headquarters of the Preventive Security Service in Gaza City and took numerous prisoners. (Watch how Hamas crushed Fatah)
Hamas fighters ransacked captured installations Thursday and led away shirtless Fatah prisoners. Their fates were unknown, but a Hamas representative in Lebanon, Osama Hamdan, denied reports that Fatah captives were being executed in the streets.
Abbas and the rest of the Palestinian Authority leadership are based in Ramallah, in the West Bank.
But the collapse of the Fatah-controlled Palestinian security forces in Gaza raised questions in Israel, the United States and the surrounding Arab region about the future of any settlement of the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Hamas and Fatah formed a unity government in February in an effort to stop periodic street battles and restart international funding, particularly from the United States and the European Union. Direct funding was cut off after Hamas refused to renounce violence and recognize Israel's right to exist.
According to Hamas, an unknown number of Fatah officials have left the territory and crossed into Egypt.
The developments came as Hamas was consolidating its power in Gaza a day after claiming control over Gaza City's presidential compound, the final symbol of Palestinian Authority power there.
On Friday, Hamas gunmen were seen going through Fatah-dominated areas, looking for wanted men and collecting weapons, according to CNN's Talal Abu-Rahman.
He reported that several Fatah members, including senior field commanders had been detained.
Loud speakers coming from Gaza City mosques also called for Fatah officials to turn themselves in.
On Thursday, President Mahmoud Abbas, of Fatah, dissolved the Hamas-led Palestinian unity government.
The emergency decree dismissed Prime Minister Ismail Haniya and announced that an interim government staffed by Fatah would be created.
The president vowed to hold new elections "as soon as the situation on the ground permits," Abbas adviser Tayeb Abdel Rahim said.
But Haniya, whose militant Islamic party won control of the Palestinian parliament in 2006, rejected the "hasty" decree and said his government would remain in office.
"Our presence in the government came about from democratic and popular will and through the ballot boxes," he said in a late-night speech. "We restate that we will continue to follow democratic conduct and respect the political system and all of its components which came through the elections."
After four days of intense fighting that left at least 70 Palestinians dead, Hamas fighters waved their green banners atop the headquarters of the Preventive Security Service in Gaza City and took numerous prisoners. (Watch how Hamas crushed Fatah)
Hamas fighters ransacked captured installations Thursday and led away shirtless Fatah prisoners. Their fates were unknown, but a Hamas representative in Lebanon, Osama Hamdan, denied reports that Fatah captives were being executed in the streets.
Abbas and the rest of the Palestinian Authority leadership are based in Ramallah, in the West Bank.
But the collapse of the Fatah-controlled Palestinian security forces in Gaza raised questions in Israel, the United States and the surrounding Arab region about the future of any settlement of the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Hamas and Fatah formed a unity government in February in an effort to stop periodic street battles and restart international funding, particularly from the United States and the European Union. Direct funding was cut off after Hamas refused to renounce violence and recognize Israel's right to exist.
© 2007 Cable News Network.
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