Israel airstrike kills 5; Hamas challenges Abbas

GAZA, Mar 6 (Reuters) An Israeli airstrike killed two Islamic Jihad militants and three other people in the Gaza Strip today, including an eight-year-old boy, Palestinian medics and witnesses said.

The Israeli army confirmed the strike on a car carrying the two militants, which came on the eve of formal campaigning for Israel's elections on March 28 and after interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed to use an ''iron fist'' against militants.

Islamic militant group Hamas, which is forming a government after winning Palestinian parliamentary elections in January, called the airstrike a ''massacre''. President Mahmoud Abbas said it was a ''dangerous escalation'' against the Palestinian people.

The unified condemnation was in sharp contrast to the first working session of the new Palestinian parliament, where Hamas legislators challenged Abbas by revoking all decisions made by the previous legislature at its final session last month.

That included legislation giving Abbas wider powers to appoint judges.

Hamas trounced Abbas's once-dominant Fatah movement in parliamentary elections on January 25.

A senior Abbas aide accused Hamas of attempting to oust the Palestinian president.

''We see this as a coup attempt to change the regime and they have to seriously reconsider their decisions,'' said the aide, Tayeb Abdel-Rahim.

In the final session of the previous parliament on Feb. 13, majority Fatah members pushed through an amendment to an existing law, giving Abbas power to appoint judges to a constitutional court without seeking legislative approval.

The judges could have been asked to decide whether laws approved by the new parliament were constitutional. Hamas said the move effectively gave Abbas veto power over new laws.

SPIKE IN VIOLENCE The two Islamic Jihad militants were killed when a missile struck their car in northern Gaza, from where militants have regularly fired makeshift rockets into Israel.

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