VARIOUS: Israel strikes at Hamas targets, killing at least three militants, after Palestinian rocket attacks

Israel struck Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip on Friday and threatened more strong action to stop rocket attacks while Palestinian rival factions fought each other in turmoil verging on civil war. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose Fatah faction has been accused by Hamas of siding with Israel, called U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and asked her to halt an Israeli "military escalation", a Palestinian news agency said. A Palestinian hospital official said at least one man was killed and others were wounded when Israeli helicopter gunships fired on them after they launched a rocket into Israel. The military said it attacked a rocket crew in northern Gaza and that 10 missiles had struck Israel. One hit a house in the town of Sderot. Medics said there were only minor injuries. Hours later, Israeli aircraft bombed a Hamas-owned car in Gaza City. Two militants were killed, hospital officials said. Three other air strikes wounded three Palestinians, one of them a Hamas man and the others civilians, hospital officials said. Fatah and Hamas forces, locked in fighting for the past week, battled again in Gaza City. Three rocket-propelled grenades were fired at the pro-Hamas Islamic University campus. Two militants -- one from each side -- were killed, hospital officials said. A fisherman was also killed after being caught in crossfire. Hospital officials said two other civilians died from wounds sustained during internal clashes earlier this week. Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, a Hamas leader, called on Palestinians to unite against "Israeli aggression" and cease internal fighting. "I have asked since yesterday for all the security forces and all the militants to withdraw from the streets and to go back to their positions, to their bases, to their homes and to help one another in carrying out these agreements. The Palestinian people need to unite in the face of the Israeli attacks." Truces agreed by the Islamist Hamas and the more secular Fatah over the past week have collapsed swiftly. Nearly 50 people have died in the deadliest internal violence since the two rival groups formed a unity government in March. In Tel Aviv, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told foreign ambassadors the government might decide on further action within days and noted the cabinet would meet as usual on Sunday. "In the next few days Israel is going to make some decisions and we are going to have another cabinet meeting on Sunday, after the briefing I am going to explain to you what are the possibilities and what we are facing. But I just want to say that I think for too long the international community took the situation in the south part of Israel as acceptable, as part of life in Israel, and it is not." Israeli forces have recently completed training for a possible ground offensive in Gaza, from which they and Israeli settlers withdrew in 2005. Tanks and some other troops took up positions just inside the crowded coastal enclave on Thursday in a move the military called "defensive". At least 11 Hamas fighters have been killed in Israeli strikes since early on Thursday. Militants from Gaza have fired about 100 rockets at the town of Sderot and its surroundings in the past week, causing several injuries but no deaths.

ITN Source | May 19, 2007

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