ஹமாஸ் ஃபடா போரில் இதுவரை 616 பாலஸ்தீனர்கள் கொல்லப்பட்டிருக்கின்றனர்

நேற்றும் காஜா பகுதியில் பாலஸ்தின படா குழுவினரும் ஹமாஸ் குழுவினரும் மோதிக்கொண்டதில் 4 பேர் பலியானார்கள். 44 பேர் பலத்த காயமடைந்தார்கள்.

ஹமாஸ் வெற்றிக்குப்பிறகு ஹமாச்சுகும் படாவுக்கும் இடையே ஆரம்பித்து நடந்துகொண்டிருக்கும் போரில் இதுவரை 616 பேர்கள் கொல்லப்பட்டிருக்கின்றார்கள் அறியப்படுகிறது.

factions fight Gaza gunbattlesFrom correspondents in Gaza
June 11, 2007 05:42am

RIVAL Palestinian factions battled in the Gaza Strip overnight, raising the weekend toll to four dead and 44 wounded in the fiercest internal fighting since a ceasefire was declared nearly a month ago.
Hours after Palestinian militants from Gaza infiltrated into Israel at a key border crossing using an armoured vehicle marked "TV", Israeli aircraft bombed a Gaza building used by Islamic Jihad, wounding two people, local residents said.

The army confirmed the air strike was aimed at Islamic Jihad, which took part in yesterday's cross-border raid.

The heaviest fighting between the ruling Hamas Islamist group and President Mahmoud Abbas's secular Fatah faction took place in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, where hundreds of rival gunmen took up positions on street corners and rooftops.

Hamas and Fatah pounded each other's positions with rocket-propelled grenades and machineguns, according to locals, who took shelter indoors as the rivals fought block by block.

Two men from Fatah and one from Hamas were killed, hospital officials said.

Hundreds, including gunmen, attended funerals for the slain men, but there were no immediate reports of violence.

The fighting also spread to Gaza City, where Fatah identified a body brought to a hospital as a member of Mr Abbas's elite Force 17, and said he had been shot in both legs and thrown from a high building. Hamas had no immediate comment on that claim.

Fatah security forces responded by deploying masked guards along main roads in Gaza City. Hamas gunmen also took to the streets, stopping cars to check identification documents.

Hamas and Fatah also accused each other of abducting at least one member of each group in a central Gaza refugee camp, sparking a gun battle that wounded four more people, hospital officials said.

The Palestinian journalists' union criticised militants for placing a "TV" insignia on the vehicle they used overnight to approach Gaza's border with Israel and attack an Israeli army post across the frontier. One gunman was killed in the assault.

Militants' use of media markings, the union said, could turn journalists who use armoured vehicles in the Gaza Strip into targets for Israeli attack.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said militants had tried to "take advantage of the special sensitivity that we have in a democratic country such as ours to the right of the media to operate freely and independently in security-sensitive areas".

Tension has remained high in Gaza since an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire took effect in mid-May, followed by a surge in Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel and Israeli air strikes on militants.

About 50 Palestinians died in internal fighting last month alone.

Egyptian officials have been holding talks in Cairo with leaders from both factions but no agreement has been reached.

Hamas said the fighting started last night, when Fatah gunmen shot dead a local Hamas commander in Rafah. Fatah said the fighting began when Hamas used rocket-propelled grenades and explosives to destroy the homes of two Fatah militants.

The once-dominant Fatah formed a unity government in March with Hamas, victors in a 2006 parliamentary election, to try to end faction fighting and ease international sanctions imposed after Hamas took power.

An estimated 616 Palestinians have been killed in factional fighting since Hamas's electoral win, a leading Palestinian rights group said in a report on Wednesday.