Israel attacks in Gaza amid factional violence

GAZA, May 16 (Reuters) At least 16 Palestinians were killed in fierce factional fighting in Gaza today and Israel went into action with an air strike on a Hamas compound that killed at least four gunmen.

Palestinian officials said the widening hostilities could bring down a two-month-old unity government formed between Hamas and President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah. Some Palestinians have said the government's collapse could lead to further violence and spell the end of the Palestinian Authority.

The Israeli air strike flattened a building used by Hamas's Executive Force, but the army said the attack was not connected to internal fighting that has pushed the Palestinians closer to all-out civil war.

Factional fighting since Friday has killed at least 40 Palestinians. While Gaza battles raged, militants have fired rockets at southern Israel, causing injuries but no deaths.

Israel has reserved the right to respond to rocket fire and the army said the Hamas building was targeted because it was a command centre used to plan such attacks.

The Executive Force, which has taken a lead in internal fighting between ruling Hamas Islamists and secular Fatah, denied the building was used to plan rocket attacks and said the air strike was proof that Israel was taking sides.

In today's internal violence, Hamas gunmen stormed the home of Abbas's top security chief, Rashid Abu Shbak. Hamas fired mortars at Abbas's compound and set fire to a building where the head of a pro-Fatah security service lives.

CONTROL Some Western officials say the government's collapse could allow Abbas to assert more control, leading to an end to a Western aid embargo, ahead of possible early elections.

Several Fatah leaders have urged Abbas to declare a state of emergency, which could allow him to rule by decree for a limited period of time.

A Palestinian official said Abbas cancelled a trip to Jordan and would travel to Gaza tomorrow to try to restore calm.

In today's deadliest single attack, five detained Hamas gunmen and two Fatah escorts were killed when their vehicle, travelling to a detention centre, came under fire.

Security officials said the vehicle was attacked by Hamas fighters, but a spokesman for Hamas's Executive Force said they were ''executed ... in cold blood'' by Fatah.

Hamas said another of its members was ''executed'' earlier in the day by Fatah gunmen at a checkpoint. Fatah said at least nine of its members were killed in today's fighting, including four guards at Abu Shbak's home, a member of Abbas's Presidential Guard and two members of Preventive Security.

Fatah's forces are larger in number. But many analysts believe Hamas's Executive Force and armed wing are better equipped and organised.

Terrified Gaza residents hid indoors as masked gunmen fought running battles street-to-street. In one panicked call to a radio station, a woman appealed to Palestinian leaders to act, pleading: ''Do not leave us to die here.'' In the southern Gaza town of Rafah, the Israeli air strike killed four members of Hamas's Executive Force and wounded at least 18 other people, some buried in the rubble, Hamas said.

''Israel will not be a part of the internal Palestinian power struggle but Israel will respond with severity to the continued firing of Qassam rockets,'' said Defence Minister Amir Peretz.

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