Palestinian infighting flares in Gaza, gunmen target PM's house

MIDDLE EAST: Rival Palestinian forces clashed in Gaza, with two militants thrown out of high-rise buildings and killed, and gunmen opened fire early Monday in the house of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas.

There were no immediate reports of casualties in the attack on Haniyeh's house in the Shati refugee camp next to Gaza City. It was the first time in a month of infighting that Haniyeh was an apparent target, underlining an escalation in tactics by the warring sides.

In an especially grisly incident Sunday, Hamas militants kidnapped an officer in a Fatah-linked security force, took him to the roof of a 15-story apartment building and threw him off. Mohammed Sweirki, 25, from the Presidential Guard of President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, was killed in the plunge.

That set off skirmishes through the city, including gun battles and shelling. Fatah militants surrounded the house of a Hamas mosque preacher, fired rocket-propelled grenades at the four-story building and then entered, firing at the preacher, Mohammed al-Rifati, 40, and taking him away. Later, his body was brought to a hospital. Hamas pledged revenge.

And just before midnight, a Hamas activist was thrown off the 12th floor of a building and killed, security officials said. Four other Hamas men in the building were shot and wounded, bringing the day's toll to three dead and 36 wounded, medical officials said.

Palestinian TV reported that Haniyeh called on gunmen to pull back from streets and rooftops to allow about 24,000 Gaza high school students to start their final exams on Monday.

Israeli forces entered southern Gaza late Sunday, witnesses said. The military said it was a routine, small-scale operation aimed at demonstrating a presence and deterring rocket fire.

A truce declared two weeks ago was meant to end the clashes, but last week the fighting reignited around the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Five militants have been killed in fighting since Thursday. The latest was the Fatah officer pushed off a roof in Gaza city on Sunday. Also, a Hamas militant wounded Friday died on Sunday.

On Sunday, three houses in Rafah were destroyed, and Hamas militants remained on rooftops. Later Sunday the fighting stopped, shops opened and people were out in the streets. Fighting had stopped for several days as Israeli-Palestinian clashes resumed. On Sunday, Israeli political and military leaders pledged to keep up the pressure on Gaza after a cross-border raid by Palestinian militants, a failed attempt to capture a soldier.

Israel responded with a flurry of airstrikes, and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told his Cabinet there was more to come. "I said a week ago that our operations in Gaza will continue as long as it takes to block the terrorists attempts to infiltrate and the Qassam rockets," he said.

Gaza City, Monday, AP