Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian Authority president, on Thursday night dismissed his Hamas-led government and declared a state of emergency, although with little prospect of imposing it in the Gaza Strip after Hamas routed his Fatah loyalists there in the space of a week.

His decrees marked the end of a unity government the two parties formed in March after agreeing in Mecca on a programme to end their factional strife. In the latest round of violence, Hamas gunmen seized almost all the main Gaza bases of security forces that answer to Mr Abbas.