The fighting may have died down apart from the occasional burst of gunfire, but the homes of Fatah members loyal to Abbas and the fallen security strongholds across the territory were considered fair game.

While victorious Hamas militants posted outside Abbas's own villa prevented looters from approaching, the home of former Fatah strongman in Gaza Mohammed Dahlan was not spared.

The possessions of a man hated by Hamas became the spoils of war.

An AFP correspondent witnessed dozens of Palestinians taking everything they could carry from Dahlan's villa -- furniture, pot plants and even the kitchen sink, complete with plumbing fixtures such as taps.

And inside the Muntada, Abbas's seafront presidential compound that was seized by masked militants on Thursday -- the final bastion to fall, witnesses reported seeing Hamas fighters remove computers, documents and guns.

They also helped themselves to Fatah vehicles. Those they could not get started were towed away, draped in the green standard of Hamas.

The Islamists were firmly in control of Gaza on Friday, effectively creating an Islamic enclave on Israel's border and effectively splitting the Palestinians into two separate entities, jeopardising any prospect for a future state of their own and peace with Israel.

In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, now Fatah's sole powerbase, five shops affiliated with Hamas sympathisers, including a falafel stand, were torched in Bethelehem, security sources and Hamas said.

Sporadic shooting rattled around Gaza, which has been completely sealed off from the outside world by Israel, which closed all border crossings until further notice.

"This is the worst thing I've seen since 1967" when Israel routed Arab armies in the Six Day War, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat of Fatah told AFP.

"I see the separation of Gaza from the West Bank, and I see the Palestinian aspirations for a state set back. Gaza is officially outside the (Palestinian) Authority's control. It's a mutiny now."

Meanwhile, a deeply alarmed Israel on Friday mulled its future strategy towards Hamas after the radical Islamist movement, which it blacklists as a terrorist organisation, snatched control of the Gaza Strip.

Israel woke up to find itself sandwiched between two de facto Palestinian entities, one controlled by Western-backed president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah party in the West Bank and the other under unfettered Hamas-control in Gaza.

The Israeli press was awash with alarmist cries of chaos, hell and catastrophe that would put the Jewish state on the frontline of global jihad.

"The catastrophic scenario has become reality: Hamas controls Gaza and Fatah the West Bank" and "Welcome to Hell" screeched the tabloid-style Maariv daily; "Hamastan is Here" cried the top-selling Yediot Aharonot.

"At the moment, Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) and Gaza are de facto separated," government spokesman Miri Eisin said, standing by Israel's long-term strategy of supporting moderates at the expense of Hamas radicals.