Israeli air strikes hit Hamas in Gaza

Israel launched air strikes in Gaza yesterday against a Hamas security force, killing at least four people and plunging Palestinians deeper into turmoil after six days of fierce internal fighting verging on civil war.

Rubble was all that remained of a downtown Gaza City building that housed Hamas's Executive Force, which Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction wants disbanded. At least 40 people were wounded in that attack alone, hospital officials said.

Israeli artillery batteries were deployed along the Gaza border and local residents said tanks were moving towards northern Gaza towns. The army had no comment on the movements. Israeli forces recently completed training for a possible ground invasion of Gaza.

The Israeli army broke into local radio broadcasts to warn northern Gaza residents not to approach Israeli forces operating in the area.

Despite a ceasefire deal brokered by Abbas and Hamas leader-in-exile Khaled Meshaal, four Palestinians - including a woman and a young boy - were killed in fighting between Hamas and Fatah yesterday, raising the death toll in such internal conflict to at least 44 since Friday.

Israel said it launched the air strikes in response to cross-border rocket attacks. Hamas accused Israel of colluding with its rival Palestinian faction Fatah in a battle for dominance in the territory, which Israeli soldiers and settlers quit two years ago.

Fatah brushed aside Hamas's charges, saying Palestinians must unite in the face of the Israeli onslaught.

"We have had enough. Israel will take all defensive measures to protect our citizens from these Hamas rockets," Miri Eisin, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said before the air strikes.