On Wednesday, at the Bir Zeit University in the West Bank, a fight broke out between Palestinian students affiliated with the Fatah party and student members of Hamas.

Words quickly led to an exchange of fists, rocks and sticks, according to one journalist's account.

It started as Islamist students protested on campus against the arrest of their leadership by Palestinian security forces in the West Bank. Dozens of other students have also been summoned by the Preventive Security Services. The protest included a hunger strike lasting several days.

Fatah activists said that the protest was supposed to have been open to all students and its focus was the increase in tuition. They therefore asked the Islamist students to remove inappropriate placards. According to the Hamas activists' account, some 100 Fatah students attacked about 15 Islamist ones. Those who fled the attackers were arrested by the Palestinian Authority's security services outside campus. At least seven individuals hurt in the confrontation were treated in hospital.

The fracas at the university reflects mutual hostility between the Palestinian groups that has only intensified since the giant demonstrations against now-deposed Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, and after the Egyptian army rode into power on the wave of popular demonstrations against Muslim Brotherhood rule.

Despite public urging for reconciliation among Palestinians, more and more activists and political observers have reached the conclusion that the split between Gaza and the West Bank, namely between Hamas and Fatah, will not be healed anytime soon. Until now such talk was generally behind closed doors. With the events in Egypt, it’s come out into the open.

Until recently, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas had promised that on August 14 this year, a Palestinian national reconciliation government would rise as a prelude to general elections in Gaza and the West Bank. However, recently, according to several journalist reports, a proposal has been made in Fatah to declare the Gaza Strip a “rebel province” that should be conquered by military force.

It is an unrealistic idea. It couldn’t happen without Israel's permission, and would hardly strengthen Fatah's stature among Palestinians.

It must be allowed that the PA could ease its budgetary stress by halting monthly salary and welfare payments, but Abbas has refused to declare Gaza as being in rebellion.

Not gloating is difficult

Even before Morsi's arrest, Fatah members found it hard not to gloat over the misfortune of the Muslim Brotherhood and their ally Hamas. The more polite members of Fatah and the Palestine Liberation Organization have said that the events in Egypt attest to the end of a political Islam that is totalitarian and anti-democratic by nature. They also warned that Hamas' statement of solidarity with Morsi constituted interference in the domestic matters of a sister country, and endangered the political standing of Palestinians among Arab nations. It would awaken the suspicion that Hamas' primary motivation lay not with the Palestinian cause but with a foreign movement, they said.

At the same time, Hamas says the Fatah support for Morsi’s removal proved that it was not motivated by democratic principles and that it was on the same side as Israel.

In recent weeks, Fatah and PA security service members living in Gaza have been arrested by Hamas. A Fatah delegation that came to Gaza to hold reconciliation talks was met with demonstrations and was asked to leave the Strip.

The PA for its part suppressed several demonstration in favor of Morsi in the West Bank.

Aside from the closing the smuggling tunnels, the most difficult development for the Gaza Strip and the Hamas government there was the closing of the Rafah crossing on Monday after 25 Egyptian policemen were killed by in the Sinai Peninsula near Rafah by suspected militants. Hundreds of people are now trapped either trying to enter or leave Gaza.

An agreement between Israel's Civil Administration in the territories and the PA's Civil Affairs Ministry to let those trapped in Gaza leave through Israel's Erez crossing was reported by a Palestinian feminist news site. However, in an interview with Hamas' official news service, Ziad al-Zaza, Hamas' deputy prime minister and finance minister, said that while the closure of the Rafah crossing is hurting Gaza, there is no possibility that the Erez crossing would be re-opened under Israeli supervision.

This past Wednesday, Hamas' prime minister Ismail Haniyeh recalled at a public event the hundreds killed in the civil war that broke out in Gaza in 2007 during the Hamas takeover. His speech was received in several different ways. In its coverage of the speech, the Palestinian Maan news agency emphasized Haniyeh's warning to a Facebook group called Gazan Timrod (rebellion) that declared this November 3 as a day of protest against repression in Gaza and elsewhere. Amad, a news website affiliated with Fatah, focused on Haniyeh's call for cooperation with other Palestinian political groups in administering the Gaza Strip as a means toward promoting reconciliation and holding local elections. However, these proposals are too late and were made due to the crisis facing the Hamas government in the Strip, said Fatah Revolutionary Council Secretary General Amin Makboul. His words suggest that Fatah does not intend to save Hamas from its crisis with a national unity government.