Four dead in Gaza factional violence

GAZA, May 13 (Reuters) Four Palestinians were killed in Gaza today and a Hamas official was abducted from his home in the deadliest outbreak of factional fighting in the coastal strip in months, sources from Hamas and the Fatah group said.

Gunmen killed a senior commander of al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and another member of the Fatah-linked militant group in an attack it blamed on the rival Hamas movement.

Abu Qusai, spokesman of al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, said the Brigades held Hamas's armed wing, the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, and its executive force responsible.

The Qassam Brigades denied being behind the attack.

Unidentified gunmen later killed two men outside a mosque in Gaza City, and nine others were wounded, hospital officials said. The identities of those hurt were not immediately clear.

Hamas blamed the second shooting on Fatah loyalists. Fatah said that incident was the result of an exchange of fire with Hamas gunmen.

In a third incident, three people were wounded during the funeral for the brigades commander in northern Gaza, medics said.

Gunmen later seized a Hamas official from his Gaza home, beating him and stuffing him into a vehicle outside that sped away, a Hamas source and witnesses said, blaming Fatah. Fatah officials had no immediate comment.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum called on ''all Hamas and Qassam men to go on high alert to rescue'' the kidnapped man, Ali al-Sharif, a lecturer at the pro-H|ss|ssamas Islamic University in Gaza City.

It was the worst outbreak of internal fighting in Gaza since a February ceasefire brokered by Saudi Arabia, after which Fatah and Hamas established a unity government in March.

GUNMEN ERECT CHECKPOINTS In another sign of heightened tensions, gunmen from the rival groups fanned out throughout Gaza, setting up makeshift checkpoints on the roads.

''This is the point of no-return,'' an al-Aqsa Brigades official said after the commander, Baha Abu Jarad, and one of his men were shot dead in an ambush of their vehicle in the north of the territory.

Palestinians had hoped the recent deployment of Palestinian police in Gaza under a new security plan would curb growing lawlessness and ease tensions between long-time rivals Fatah and Hamas.

Gunmen from the Qassam Brigades and the Fatah-dominated national security forces fought on Friday in clashes that wounded at least six people.

Previous police deployments in Gaza have not fully secured the territory, which has sunk further into poverty and political disarray since Israel withdrew troops and settlers in 2005.

Reuters MP DB2211