Middle East

Hamas militants fire rockets into Israel

(AP)
Updated: 2007-05-16 14:58

Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz summoned army commanders for late-night consultations to consider Israel's next move. Israeli security officials said there would be no large-scale military response to the rocket fire, because such retaliation would play into Hamas' hands by uniting the rival Palestinian factions against Israel. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussions were classified.

On Wednesday morning, the streets of central Gaza City echoed with the rattle of machine gun fire, and were empty except for gunmen in black ski masks. Terrified residents huddled in dark homes after electricity to some downtown neighborhoods was cut off by a downed power line.

Fighting raged close to the heavily guarded compound of the Palestinians' moderate president, Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, which also was targeted by Hamas mortar fire overnight. Abbas is not currently in Gaza.

An Egyptian mediator said a truce was reached late Tuesday - the third in as many nights. But like the previous agreements, Tuesday's agreement collapsed within hours.

Gaza's turmoil further weakened hopes for a resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, despite a new push by the Arab world to bring the sides to the table. The offer proposes Arab recognition of Israel in exchange for an Israeli withdrawal from all lands it occupied in the 1967 Mideast War.

Negotiations, however, are inconceivable if the Palestinians descend into civil war.

This week's fighting was the worst since Hamas and Fatah agreed in February to share power.

At the core of the fighting is the unresolved power struggle between Hamas, which won parliament elections last year, and Abbas' Fatah, which dominated Palestinian politics for four decades. After a year in power and squeezed by an international aid boycott, Hamas realized it could not govern alone and brought Fatah into the government. But the two sides never worked out all their differences, particularly over who would control the Palestinian security forces.