Gaza sees worst Palestinian fighting in years

At least two people were killed and 25 wounded in some of the worst fighting among Palestinians in recent years. Palestinian troops were placed on high alert.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, struggling to rescue a five-month-old truce, has been under intense pressure from Israel and the US to crack down on militants. The pressure intensified after militants killed six Israelis this week, five in a suicide bombing and one in a rocket attack yesterday.

The tough Palestinian police action today suggested a possible shift in Palestinian policy, though Abbas was reluctant in the past to confront the militants. Palestinian security chief Nasser Yousef today said his forces will "not hesitate" to restore law and order, and ordered rocket attacks to be stopped by all means.

A defiant Hamas demanded that Abbas fire Yousef, who was a top commander during the bloodiest clash between Hamas and security forces so far - a 1994 confrontation outside a mosque in which 15 Hamas supporters were killed by Palestinian police fire.

Abbas was at his Gaza City office during today's fighting, and it was not clear whether he would meet with leaders of militant groups in an effort to defuse tensions. Sakher Bseisso, a Cabinet minister involved in contacts with Hamas in the past, said the militants were leaving Abbas little choice but to crack down.

"Hamas is trying to impose its control on the ground," he said.

Today's clashes erupted in Gaza City's Zeitoun neighbourhood, after security forces searched for militants suspected of firing rockets at Israeli towns. Militants torched a police station, and set a police armoured personnel carrier and three 4x4 vehicles on fire. Thick black smoke from burning tyres rose from the neighbourhood, as masked Hamas gunmen stood guard outside the police station.

A teenager and a child were killed in the fighting, hospital officials said, adding that the victims' exact ages were not available.

At least 25 people were wounded, including six policemen and 19 civilians, hospital officials said. It was not clear whether Hamas gunmen were hurt; the militants were not expected to take their activists to hospitals, for fear of arrest. One young man, his shirt bloodied, was carried away by a group of people.

After heavy exchanges of fire this morning, police pulled out of Zeitoun, while masked gunmen took up positions on street corners and rooftops. Hundreds of civilians were in the streets, watching the fighting.

Today's clashes came just hours after a rocket fired from Gaza killed an Israeli woman and Israel retaliated with helicopter missile strikes on several targets in Gaza. On this morning, six more rockets hit in and around the Israeli border town of Sderot, causing no injuries.

If fighting spins out of control, it could endanger Abbas' rule and overshadow the planned Israeli withdrawal from Gaza next month. Israel has said it would not pull out of Gaza under fire.

The ceasefire was the main achievement of Abbas' rule. As long as it held, he was able to defend his policy of co-opting the militants, rather than confronting them. However, with the truce increasingly shaky, he is increasingly being pushed to take action.

The confrontations between police and militants began in northern Gaza yesterday evening, when police said they tried to stop a Hamas squad from firing rockets at nearby Israeli towns. A firefight erupted, and five Hamas militants were wounded.

In response, dozens of Hamas gunmen attacked a Palestinian police post in a different area, firing machine guns, hurling grenades and setting two police car on fire.

Also yesterday, in Gaza City, armed and masked Hamas men told reporters the fighting could escalate into civil war. "We shall cut off the awful hand that attacked our fighters," one of the masked men said in an impromptu outdoor news conference.

When Palestinian police arrived, the militants ran off, some shooting in the air.