Two pro-Fatah militants killed in Gaza shooting

GAZA, May 13 (Reuters) Gunmen killed a senior commander of al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and another member of the Fatah-linked militant group in the Gaza Strip today in an attack it blamed on the rival Hamas movement.

''This is the point of no-return,'' a 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.

There was no immediate comment from Hamas's armed wing, the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades.

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

Gunmen from the Qassam Brigades and the Fatah-dominated national security forces fought on Friday in clashes that wounded at least six people. It was the heaviest internal violence in Gaza in weeks.

Internal fighting decreased after Hamas and Fatah established the unity government but tensions have remained high.

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 DS KP1607