Israel hits Gaza targets
Abbas and Haniyeh meet
Israel launched air strikes and a ground operation yesterday against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip where Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met with Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas in a bid to ease tensions.
Mr Abbas, whose secular Fatah faction shares a shaky two-month-old unity government with the ruling Hamas Islamists, hoped to convince Hamas and other groups to stop cross-border rocket attacks against Israel as part of a renewed ceasefire with the Jewish state, Palestinian officials said.
But as Mr Abbas and Mr Haniyeh met at an undisclosed location in the narrow coastal strip, Hamas's armed wing said in a statement: "Our strikes against the enemy will continue."
Israel has also resisted any ceasefire that it believes Hamas would use to rearm and strengthen its hold on power.
The top-level meeting was the first since a surge in factional violence this month verging on civil war. Despite the latest ceasefire, tensions between Hamas and Fatah remain high.
Israel's bombing campaign against Hamas entered a second week with air strikes that destroyed two buildings the army said were being used to manufacture and store munitions. Palestinians denied the buildings held weapons. Hospital officials said seven Palestinians were wounded.
In a rare move, Israeli ground forces entered a small village in southern Gaza. During the brief raid, the troops held seven Palestinians for questioning, Israeli army sources said.
One of the Palestinians, 17-year-old Samer Qdaih, said the troops threatened to return to flatten the neighbourhood if rocket fire against Israeli towns continued.
At least eight rockets were fired at southern Israel yesterday, compared to 10 on Tuesday, the Israeli army and Palestinian witnesses said. Hamas's armed wing claimed responsibility for one salvo. There was no word of casualties.
A woman was killed on Monday in the Israeli town of Sderot, the first fatality in a rocket attack since November. Nearly 200 rockets have landed in Israel in the last week, the army said.
An earlier Abbas-Haniyeh meeting was called off after Israel said on Tuesday it could target Haniyeh over the rocket fire.
Government spokesman Ghazi Hamad said yesterday's meeting focused on trying to end factional fighting, Israel's air campaign and the chances of renewing a ceasefire with Israel.