"Israeli" aircraft fires on Hamas targets

Source: AP, 16-5-2007
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip --"Israeli" aircraft launched missiles at Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, killing at least five people, after Hamas fired rocket barrages into "Israel" in an apparent attempt to draw "Israel" into increasingly violent Palestinian infighting.
The streets of central Gaza City echoed with gunfire and were empty except for gunmen in black ski masks. Terrified residents stayed home from school and work, huddling in dark homes after electricity to some neighborhoods was cut off by a downed power line.
At nightfall, Hamas announced its intention to begin observing a unilateral cease-fire, and President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah also called on the warring parties to hold their fire. However, similar truces the two previous evenings did not hold.
In four days of fighting, 41 people have been killed and dozens more have been injured - not including the dead from the "Israeli" airstrikes. Most of the dead have been from Fatah. The violence threatened to bring down the Palestinians` two-month-old unity government - and brought the Palestinians dangerously close to all-out civil war.
Despite "Israel`s" vow to stay out of the fray, its missile strikes added another layer of complexity to Gaza`s mayhem, and raised the specter of a large-scale "Israeli" invasion.
"What is happening in Gaza endangers not only the unity government, but the Palestinian social fabric, the Palestinian cause and the Palestinian strategy as a whole," said Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat.
Abbas was expected to meet with Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas in Gaza on Thursday to discuss the situation, Abbas aide Yasser Abed Rabbo said. One option was declaring a state of emergency, he said. Abbas also spoke by phone with Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal in Syria on Wednesday, and the two agreed to work to end the violence.
Hamas officials said the organization`s men launched eight rockets at "Israel", following a barrage of around 20 rockets Tuesday. That salvo at the "Israeli" town of Sderot, just outside Gaza, wounded five "Israelis", one seriously, said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld.
There were no casualties Wednesday, but school was canceled in Sderot and settlers huddled in bomb shelters.
Hamas said its rockets were retaliation for "Israeli" violence, but more likely it was an attempt to draw "Israel" into the fighting as a way of uniting the Palestinians against a common foe.
Before that attack, "Israel" launched an airstrike at the Hamas military building in the southern town of Rafah, Palestinian officials and the army said. Medics said four Hamas gunmen were killed and 30 others were wounded. In a rare display of unity, Hamas and Fatah men worked together to evacuate the casualties.
Later in the day, an "Israeli" aircraft attacked a car carrying a group of Hamas militants in the northern Gaza Strip, killing one person and wounding two others, Palestinian medical officials said. The attack came shortly after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said "Israel" "cannot continue to restrain itself" in the face of repeated rocket fire by Palestinian militants.
The army said the airstrike was aimed at a Palestinian squad that had just fired rockets into "Israel", and did not strike a vehicle.
Earlier in the day, "Israeli" government spokeswoman Miri Eisin claimed "Israel" would not be "dragged into the Gaza Strip the way that Hamas wants. We will choose the time, the place to respond and we will protect our settlers."