Israeli forces kill 4 Palestinians in Gaza-residents

GAZA, Oct 13 (Reuters) Israeli forces killed four Palestinians, three of them Hamas militants, today as part of the biggest upsurge of Israeli-Palestinian violence in the Gaza Strip for weeks, residents said.

The bloodshed added to tension in the densely populated coastal territory that has also been beset by clashes between forces from the governing Hamas Islamist group and loyalists of moderate President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement.

In a speech at a mosque in southern Gaza, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas told worshipers, ''We are committed to not getting dragged to internal strife or into the so-called civil war.'' Israel launched its offensive in the Gaza Strip in late June to try to recover a captured soldier and put a stop to cross-border rocket fire.

Palestinian witnesses said an Israeli missile struck a car in the northern Gaza Strip today, killing three Hamas gunmen. Among the dead were two local commanders.

An Israeli army spokesman said the three militants had fired rockets into Israel yesterday morning.

''The Israeli army carried out an aerial attack against a vehicle in the northern Gaza Strip, laden with Qassam rockets and carrying Hamas terrorists on their way to launch the rockets at Israel,'' an army statement said.

Earlier, residents said a Palestinian woman was shot outside her home in southern Gaza. The army said soldiers searching for tunnels had fired at two gunmen in the area, hitting both of them.

HAMAS RESPONSE In response to the attacks, a spokesman of the armed wing of Hamas said, ''These attempts will fail (to free the missing soldiers) because we do not fear assassinations and these killings will not put pressure on us.'' Hamas resumed rocket attacks on Israel for the first time in one month yesterday as nine Palestinians, including at least three Hamas militants, were killed.

Almost 240 Palestinians, about half of them civilians, have been killed since Israel launched its offensive in Gaza. Israeli troops had pulled out of the territory a year ago after 38 years of occupation.

There was also sporadic fighting in Gaza between rival gunmen loyal to Hamas and Fatah after a local Hamas leader and a member of a Fatah-dominated intelligence service were killed in separate incidents yesterday.

The worst internal fighting in a decade has stoked fears of civil war after talks between Abbas and Haniyeh over a unity government broke down.

The current government is struggling under a US-led aid embargo designed to force Hamas to recognise Israel, renounce violence and accept past peace agreements with Israel.

Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal, who lives in Syria, said late yesterday that the group sees no political gain in recognising Israel and will resist doing so despite the embargo. Hamas's charter calls for Israel's destruction.

REUTERS SP RK1802