Internal violence and the US threat of aid cuts have added to the problems facing the Palestinian territories following the shock election win by the militant Islamist group Hamas.
The overwhelming victory for Hamas over the long-time ruling Fatah movement in Wednesday's parliamentary election has thrown prospects for Middle East peacemaking into turmoil and triggered alarm in Israel and across the world.
But the most immediate problem was right inside the Palestinian territories themselves.
As dusk fell over the Gaza Strip, thousands of angry Fatah supporters flooded the streets, demonstrating outside the parliament building in Gaza City to call for the resignation of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the rest of the party leadership.
In the southern Gaza Strip, violence involving Hamas and Fatah supporters in Khan Yunis and nearby also highlighted the lingering tensions and left nine people wounded, including five members of the security forces.
"We want him (Abbas) and his entire team out," demanded one militant in Gaza. "This would never have happened with (the late) Yasser Arafat," said another.
On the political front, US President George W Bush warned of cuts in US aid to the Palestinians if Hamas does not dissolve its armed wing and renounce its threats against Israel.
"If they don't, we won't deal with them. Aid packages won't go forward," Bush told CBS television.
"That's their decision to make, but we won't be providing help to a government that wants to destroy our ally and friend," Bush added.
International assistance will be a key topic when US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice meets in London on Monday with her counterparts from the European Union, Russia and the United Nations, the diplomatic "quartet" pushing the so-called "road map" to Middle East peace.
The Hamas vow to destroy Israel is at odds with that document's requirement that the Palestinians end violence against Israel.
Israel, which pulled out of Hamas's Gaza Strip stronghold last year, has steadfastly rejected talks with the movement, which refuses to recognise the Jewish state's right to exist and has carried out scores of suicide attacks.
Despite the ballot box endorsement of Hamas's militant tactics, Palestinian leader Abbas said he remained committed to reaching peace with Israel through negotiations and confirmed he would ask Hamas to form a new government.
Ismail Haniya, Hamas's top candidate in an election that saw it win 76 of the 132 seats in parliament, said he had agreed in a phone call with Abbas to meet in the next few days to discuss forming a "political partnership".
"We have political differences about the way to recover our rights but that is not to say that Hamas will be in conflict with the president of the Palestinian Authority," he said.
While Hamas will almost certainly head up the government, its areas of responsibility would be likely limited to domestic issues such as health and education.
Peace negotiations and foreign policy will essentially remain within the remit of Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority since the death of Fatah founder Arafat in November 2004.
The election result has confronted Israel's Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert with his first major crisis since assuming the reins of power from coma-stricken Ariel Sharon on January 4.
Olmert himself faces an election on March 28, aware his Kadima party's lead in the polls could be whittled away if the situation on the ground unravels.
AFP