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.
Anger flared in the Gaza Strip as thousands of angry Fatah supporters flooded the streets, demonstrating outside the parliament building in Gaza City calling 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 also highlighted the lingering tensions and left nine people wounded.
"We want him (Abbas) and his entire team out," demanded one Palestinian in Gaza. "This would never have happened with (the late) Yasser Arafat," said another.
On the political front, Mr Abbas prepared to task Hamas with forming a government.
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.
Deputies said the new government would likely allow Mr Abbas to take the lead on peace negotiations.
Despite the ballot-box endorsement of Hamas's militant tactics, Mr Abbas said he was committed to reaching peace with Israel through negotiations.
"I am determined to implement the program on which I was elected," Mr Abbas said in a televised address. "It is a program which is based on negotiations as a means to reach a peaceful resolution to the conflict with Israel."
Ismail Haniya, Hamas's top candidate in the election which saw it win 76 of the 132 seats in parliament, said he had agreed to meet with Mr Abbas 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.
The leadership of Hamas issued contrasting statements during the campaign about how it would try to bring peace to the region, but has maintained the "right" to pursue armed conflict.
Despite being behind the majority of attacks during a five-year Palestinian uprising, Hamas has carried out no bombings for more than a year.
Calls to disarm
Israel has steadfastly rejected talks with Hamas, which refuses to recognise the Jewish state's right to exist and has carried out scores of suicide attacks against Israel.
The 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.
Meanwhile, international calls for Hamas to renounce violence grew louder.
US President George W Bush warned on Friday that American aid “won't go forward" to the Palestinians if Hamas does not dissolve its armed wing and renounce threats against Israel.
"If they don't, we won't deal with them. Aid packages won't go forward," Mr Bush told CBS television in the US.
This year, the US budgeted no direct aid for the Palestinian Authority, but plans to provide US$150 million to the Palestinians through the US Agency for International Development and another US$84 million through the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees in the Near-East, he said.
Other International players in the stalled peace process made clear that Hamas would need to do more than hold fire if it wanted legitimacy.
The diplomatic "quartet" – the United Nations, the US, the EU and Russia -- behind the “roadmap” peace plan urged Hamas to not only renounce violence but also accept Israel's right to exist.
International assistance to the Palestinians was to be a key topic when US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice meets with her counterparts from the Middle East quartet in London on Monday.