Also known as the Hamas-Fatah conflict and as the Wakseh (Arabic for “self-inflicted ruin” or “humiliation”). This conflict between Hamas and Fatah began in January 2006 and continued in various forms through 2011. Tensions rose in November 2004 when the death of Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat left a political vacuum in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Hamas’ success in the January 2005 Palestinian local elections and its dramatic rise to power in legislative elections in January 2006, challenged Fatah’s longtime dominance of the political scene. Members of the international community, including Israel and the United States, rejected the election results, implemented sanctions on the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority (PA), and armed Fatah. Fatah refused to join Hamas in a coalition. In February 2007, after a long political standoff and several violent clashes, Fatah and Hamas accepted the Saudi-brokered Mecca Accords and entered a short-lived unity government. It was dissolved in June 2007 when Hamas wrested control of the Gaza Strip, claiming it was foiling a Fatah and American coup against it, and PA President Mahmoud Abbas dismantled the unity government, calling for a state of emergency in the Fatah-dominated West Bank. Sporadic clashes between between the two parties continue, but have declined significantly since June 2007. Though an emergency Fatah-dominated government remains in control of the West Bank and Hamas continues to run its own government in the Gaza Strip, both parties signed a unity agreement in April 2011, the results of which have yet to be seen. See “Q&A: Gaza’s civil war.” The Guardian. 14 June 2007. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/jun/14/israelandthepalestinians.qanda; and “Palestinian rivals: Fatah & Hamas.” 17 June 2007. BBC. 30 June 2011. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5016012.stm. For analysis of external factors contributing to the Palestinian Civil War, see Rose, David. “The Gaza Bombshell.” Vanity Fair. April 2008. http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/04/gaza200804.  http://www.justvision.org/glossary/palestinian-civil-war