Israel hits Hamas targets, Gaza militants fire back

GAZA, May 19 (Reuters) Israel killed three Palestinians in new air strikes targeting Hamas today as a rocket-propelled grenade fired by Hamas militants struck an Israeli army bulldozer inside the Gaza Strip.

The grenade attack, which lightly wounded two Israeli soldiers, was the first by the militant group against Israeli troops who have taken up positions just inside Gaza's northern border to try to stop militants from firing rockets at nearby Israeli towns.

Israel launched a wave of air strikes against Hamas targets in Gaza starting on Wednesday and senior Israeli officials said they were considering taking tougher measures. Israel's security cabinet will meet tomorrow.

The air strikes have plunged the Palestinians deeper into turmoil after nine days of fierce internal fighting verging on civil war between ruling Hamas Islamists and President Mahmoud Abbas's secular Fatah faction.

Hamas and Fatah negotiators agreed in Egyptian-brokered talks to a new ceasefire starting at 1730 hrs today.

''It would be a stigma if internal violence continued amid such Israeli aggression,'' Fatah leader Tawfiq Abu Khoussa said.

But minutes after the ceasefire talks concluded, the convoy of one of the Fatah negotiators came under attack from unidentified Palestinian gunmen. Mohammad al-Masri, a top Abbas intelligence official, was unharmed.

Previous ceasefire agreements fell apart within hours and it was unclear whether the new one would hold.

Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz said Israel had many options to try to prevent Gaza militants from firing rockets into Israel, playing down the immediate prospect of a massive ground invasion.

But Peretz added: ''I think the idea of taking over Gaza again is a decision that can be made at any time.'' The Israeli army said an air strike today hit three militants who had fired rockets into Israel from northern Gaza.

Local residents said three shepherds were killed and three other people were wounded.

An army spokesman said that two soldiers injured by the rocket-propelled grenade were evacuated by Israeli ambulances.

Hamas said it has fired several rocket-propelled grenades at Israeli forces in the area.

BOMBING CAMPAIGN Residents of the town of Beit Hanoun said five people, including three young children, were wounded by fragmentation from Israeli fire. An army spokesman said that there were no tanks in the area and that there had been no firing.

Israel has in recent days moved an undisclosed number of tanks, armoured vehicles and ground forces into areas just inside the Gaza border.

A barrage of makeshift rockets fired from Gaza into southern Israel today caused damage but no injuries.

Israel's bombing campaign against Hamas has killed at least 17 Palestinians since Wednesday. Local residents said the dead included at least five civilians.

At least 49 Palestinians have been killed in the last nine days of internal fighting between Hamas and Fatah.

''The two groups have begun ordering their men to implement (the new ceasefire) immediately,'' Ghazi Hamad, a spokesman for the Hamas-led government, said minutes before al-Masri's convoy came under fire.

Islam Shahwan, a spokesman for Hamas's Executive Force, said Fatah men opened fire on the convoy, not Hamas.

In the West Bank city of Ramallah, Deputy Prime Minister Azzam al-Ahmad, a Fatah leader, renewed his call for the Executive Force to be disbanded, accusing it of fuelling the internal violence.

Hamas has accused Israel of conspiring to aid Fatah in a power struggle for control of Gaza, which Israeli troops and settlers quit nearly two years ago.

Peretz said Israel hoped ''moderate forces will have the upper hand'' in the internal fighting.

''The Palestinian nation needs to understand that Hamas is leading them to disaster and bringing them to a catastrophe that they won't be able to get out of,'' Peretz told Army Radio.

REUTERS GT VV2313