Israel hits Hamas targets, Gaza militants fire back

Israel killed three Palestinians in new air strikes targeting Hamas yesterday as a rocket-propelled grenade fired by Hamas militants struck an Israeli army bulldozer inside the Gaza Strip.

The grenade attack, which lightly wounded two Israeli soldiers, was the first by the militant group against Israeli troops who have taken up positions just inside Gaza's northern border to try to stop militants from firing rockets at nearby Israeli towns.

Israel launched a wave of air strikes against Hamas targets in Gaza starting on Wednesday and senior Israeli officials said they were considering taking tougher measures. Israel's security cabinet will meet today.

The air strikes have plunged the Palestinians deeper into turmoil after nine days of fierce internal fighting verging on civil war between ruling Hamas Islamists and President Mahmoud Abbas's secular Fatah faction.

Hamas and Fatah negotiators agreed in Egyptian-brokered talks to a new ceasefire starting at 2 p.m. yesterday.

"It would be a stigma if internal violence continued amid such Israeli aggression," Fatah leader Tawfiq Abu Khoussa said.

But minutes after the ceasefire talks concluded, the convoy of one of the Fatah negotiators came under attack from unidentified Palestinian gunmen. Mohammad al-Masri, a top Abbas intelligence official, was unharmed.