JERUSALEM – Civil servants stormed the Palestinian Arab parliament yesterday to demand the payment of four months’ wages.

Their protest underscored the growing sense of financial and political chaos.

Several hundred public sector workers brawled with MPs, threw parliamentary papers, and shouted: “We must eat. We are hungry.”

The demonstrators had to be restrained from attacking the speaker, Aziz al-Dweik, who was led to safety under armed guard.

As if to emphasize the ad hoc nature of Palestinian Authority finances, the foreign minister, Mahmoud Zahar, arrived at the border crossing between Egypt and Gaza with $20 million stuffed into four suitcases.

He declared the money to Palestinian Arab customs officials then left it with them on the understanding that it would be delivered to the Finance Ministry.

Such piecemeal deliveries of cash are vital to keep the economy running in the face of international sanctions imposed to try to force the Hamas government to recognize Israel. While many Arab nations have said they would be willing to help the government, international banks are reluctant to transfer cash to the Palestinian Arab territories for fear of being accused by the Americans of funding terrorists.

This has led to senior Hamas figures trying to smuggle cash into Gaza. Last month a Hamas spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, was caught as he tried to cross into Gaza from Egypt with $900,000 hidden in his clothes.

In the midst of the chaos, the leaders of the two rival Palestinian Arab factions sought to stop the drift toward civil war.

The moderate president of the Palestinian Authority and the leader of Fatah, Mahmoud Abbas, and the Hamas prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, agreed that a newly formed Hamas militia would be integrated into the Palestinian Arab police.

The men announced the accord shortly before starting another round of talks to try to overcome differences between Fatah and Hamas on a joint negotiating position toward Israel. It is hoped that the police agreement will ease tension caused by the deployment of Hamas militiamen, wearing black T-shirts and baseball caps and heavily armed with automatic weapons, on the streets of Gaza last month. Clashes between this new force and older, Fatah-dominated security groups such as the Preventative Security force have claimed more than a dozen lives. Yesterday a Hamas gunman was shot dead in what appeared to be retaliation by Preventative Security members after one of their commanders was ambushed by Hamas and shot seven times in the legs.

While Fatah has accepted the right of Israel to exist, albeit on less land than the Jewish state occupies at present, Hamas has never done so.

Mr. Abbas believes that such a hardline stance is in danger of allowing Israel to dictate unilaterally the shape and size of a future Palestinian Arab state, and he is trying to persuade Hamas to accept the Fatah view.

If the seven days of talks fail, Mr. Abbas has said the question of whether Israel should be recognized will be put to the Palestinian Arab people in a referendum.

There are fears that such a referendum could provoke fierce fighting between Hamas and Fatah.