Palestinian college students engaged in a uniquely Palestinian form of debate today: 8 Palestinians hurt in Hamas-Fatah gunfight.

At least eight Palestinians were injured yesterday in the center of Nablus when a gunfight broke out between Hamas and Fatah activists.

It is believed to be the first incident of its kind since the start of the intifada.

The gunfight took place against the backdrop of elections to the student council of the Open Al-Quds University, based in the city’s Rafadiyeh neighborhood.

Palestinian sources said it began as a brawl between Hamas activists, who were looking to set up a campaign booth on the university grounds, and Fatah youth, who wanted to stop them.

The brawl and shouting match soon turned into a knife fight, the sources said, adding a large group of Fatah activists then arrived on the scene and set fire to furniture and office equipment belonging to Hamas and Islamic Jihad opposition groups on campus. Shortly thereafter, the gunfight began.

Four of the injured sustained gunshot and knife wounds and were evacuated to city hospitals.

Later in the day, the sources said, senior Fatah and Hamas officials intervened in an effort to restore calm. The university’s administration published a leaflet condemning the violence. Before and during the intifada, there have been a number of armed clashes between members of Hamas’s military wing and the Palestinian security forces, primarily in Gaza. However, Fatah and Hamas activists, despite their differences, have always shied away from taking up arms against one another.