GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – The Palestinian political rift widened Sunday as a new pro-Western government took power in the West Bank and Islamist Hamas forces consolidated their control of the Gaza Strip.

At his West Bank compound in Ramallah, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas installed the new emergency Cabinet to replace the Hamas-dominated government he dissolved over the weekend.

Abbas, leader of the secular Fatah party, also issued a decree banning the Hamas-led military force in the Gaza Strip. But Hamas defied the order by dispatching its military to patrol the Gaza City streets – a clear demonstration of the group’s complete control of the increasingly isolated Mediterranean coastal area.

Fearing for their lives and their future, hundreds of Palestinians rushed to the abandoned border crossing with Israel in an attempt to flee after five days of factional fighting that claimed more than 120 lives. Those that remained stocked up on food and fuel amid early signs that the region would face a summer of shortages.

The main cargo terminal linking Gaza to the outside world has been closed since the fighting reached its peak last week and ended with full Hamas control.

Aid workers said there are enough basic foodstuffs to last two weeks for most Palestinians as the United Nations, which provides food and services to about half of the Gaza Strip residents, wrestled with how to respond.

On Sunday, the Israeli company that provides fuel to the Gaza Strip announced that it was cutting off automotive gasoline to Gaza. That could leave the region’s ambulances and emergency hospital generators without fuel in 10 days, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

As anxiety rose in the Gaza Strip, Abbas and his new government sought to reassure all Palestinians that they would not ignore the area now that it has fallen under Hamas control.

“You are in our hearts and at the top of our agenda,” said Salam Fayyad, the pro-Western economist tapped by Abbas to serve as prime minister of the emergency government.

Although the crisis has created a dangerous internal rift for Palestinians, it has provided Israel and the West with a new opportunity to reinvigorate stagnant peace talks.

Both the United States and Israel have indicated that they will establish normal relations with the new government after refusing to work with the Hamas-dominated Cabinet because of its refusal to explicitly recognize Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is now in the United States for meetings with United Nations leader Ban Ki-moon and President Bush.

Mark Regev, a spokesman for Israel’s Foreign Ministry, said he expected Israel to move swiftly to bolster the emergency Cabinet with money and diplomatic support that was severed last year when Hamas took control of the Palestinian Authority in democratic elections.

As Israel contemplated what to do about Gaza, the country’s northern border was rattled when two Katyusha rockets hit Kiryat Shmona, a central target for Hezbollah attacks during last summer’s 34-day war.

The rockets, the first since the war ended last August, caused minor damage. Hezbollah denied that it had fired the rockets and it appeared that Palestinian militants were behind the attack. Israel indicated that it would not respond with serious force.