| Violence grows between fatah hamas { May 17 2007 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active) http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070517/NEWS07/705170403/1001/NEWShttp://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070517/NEWS07/705170403/1001/NEWS
Violence grows brazen between Fatah, Hamas May 17, 2007
FREE PRESS NEWS SERVICES
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- The fighting in Gaza intensified Wednesday, with an Israeli air strike on what officials called a Hamas command center and a Hamas raid on the home of a senior Palestinian security official from the rival Fatah faction.
At least 21 people were killed in the most widespread fighting of nearly a year of clashes between Fatah and Hamas.
Hamas also targeted Israel, firing barrages of homemade rockets for a second day, seriously wounding one person and knocking out power in the southern Israeli town of Sderot, officials said. Israel staged two air strikes on Hamas targets, reportedly killing five people.
Hamas fighters appeared to be trying to draw Israel into the conflict in hopes of uniting Palestinians against a common foe. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's Security Cabinet decided against large-scale reprisal, but it authorized the army to step up attacks on Hamas rocket squads.
"Israel cannot continue to restrain itself when its citizens are being hit and therefore decided on a severe and serious response," Olmert's office said.
The fierce fighting between Hamas and Fatah has been raging for four days, after a three-month hiatus broke down Sunday. The renewed violence threatens the survival of the Palestinian Authority's 2-month-old unity government, which was created under a power-sharing agreement between Hamas and Fatah.
The latest round of violence erupted this week after President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah deployed thousands of police officers to halt a crime wave in Gaza without first consulting with Hamas. Forty-five people have died, most of them Fatah men, and dozens have been wounded.
During the week, the attacks have grown increasingly brazen. Hamas gunmen fatally shot six bodyguards early Wednesday during an assassination attempt on a top Fatah security man. The commander, Rashid Abu Shbak, wasn't home during the assault, and his family escaped harm.
Hamas official Ahmed Bahar, the deputy parliament speaker, called the fighting a major setback. "We urge all the Palestinian parties to stop," he said on the Al-Jazeera TV station. "We urge them to direct our weapons to the Israeli enemy instead."
At nightfall, Hamas announced its intention to begin observing a unilateral cease-fire, and Abbas also called on the warring parties to hold their fire. However, similar truces the two previous evenings did not hold.
Abbas planned to travel from his West Bank headquarters to the Gaza Strip today to meet with Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, said a presidential aide, Yasser Abed Rabbo.
He also spoke by phone with Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal in Syria on Wednesday, and the two agreed to work to end the violence.
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