Israel attacks in Gaza amid factional violence

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA (Reuters) - At least 25 Palestinians were killed on Wednesday as President Mahmoud Abbas's secular Fatah faction and Hamas battled for control of Gaza and Israel launched a deadly round of air strikes against the Islamists.

Palestinian officials said the widening hostilities could bring down a two-month-old unity government formed between Hamas and Fatah. Some Palestinians see this leading to all-out civil war and the end of the Palestinian Authority.

Terrified Gaza residents hid indoors as masked gunmen fought running battles street-to-street, killing 20 people -- five of them even after the two sides declared a ceasefire at dusk. In one panicked call to a radio station, a woman urged Palestinian leaders to act, pleading: "Do not leave us to die here."

Israel's biggest air strike razed a building used by Hamas's Executive Force in the south Gaza town of Rafah, killing four militants. Israel said the attack was not connected to internal clashes that have killed at least 44 people since Friday.

A later air strike in northern Gaza killed another Hamas militant and wounded two other Palestinians, residents said.

While battles raged throughout the Gaza Strip, militants have fired rockets at southern Israel, causing injuries but no deaths, in an apparent attempt to draw Israel into the fighting.

Israel said the air strikes, the deadliest since a November truce in Gaza was declared, targeted a Rafah command centre used by Hamas to plan attacks and a rocket crew that had just fired into the Jewish state.

The Executive Force, which has taken a lead in fighting with Fatah, denied the Rafah building was used to plan rocket attacks and said the air strikes proved Israel was taking sides.

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Israel may step up military strikes in the Gaza Strip in response to a surge of Palestinian cross-border rocket salvoes.

"Until now, we have demonstrated restraint, but this situation is not a tolerable situation," Livni told reporters after security consultations with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz.

Israel faces a delicate balancing act. It is under domestic pressure to stop the rockets and also wants Fatah to deal a blow to Hamas, the party of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh; it agreed to let 450 Fatah troops into Gaza from Egypt on Tuesday.

But overt Israeli assistance for Fatah could backfire if Hamas is able to paint Abbas as an ally of the Jewish state, which many Palestinians see as their real enemy. Pro-Hamas media have already begun accusing Abbas of lining up with Israel.

"We will not intervene in the war itself but if Mr. Abbas will request specific help, we will supply (it)," Israeli Vice Premier Shimon Peres told reporters during a visit to Estonia.

CEASEFIRE BLOWN AWAY

Hamas and Fatah declared a ceasefire at 8 p.m.(1700 GMT). But five armed men died in later clashes. Fierce gunfire and explosions were still heard across the cramped coastal enclave.