Rival factions fight gunbattles in Gaza

Gaza: Rival Palestinian factions battled in the Gaza Strip yesterday, raising the weekend toll to four dead and 44 wounded in the fiercest internal fighting since a ceasefire was declared nearly a month ago.

Meanwhile, Israeli aircraft bombed a Gaza building used by Islamic Jihad, wounding two people, local residents said.

The army confirmed the air strike was aimed at Islamic Jihad, which took part in Saturday's cross-border raid.

The heaviest fighting between the ruling Hamas and President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction took place in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, where hundreds of rival gunmen took up positions on street corners and rooftops.

Hamas and Fatah pounded each other's positions with rocket-propelled grenades and machineguns, according to locals, who took shelter indoors as the rivals fought block by block.

Two men from Fatah and one from Hamas were killed, hospital officials said. Hundreds including gunmen attended funerals for the slain men, but there were no immediate reports of violence. The fighting also spread to Gaza City where Fatah identified a body brought to a hospital as a member of Abbas's elite Force 17, and said he had been shot in both legs and thrown from a high building. Hamas had no immediate comment on that claim.

Some 50 Palestinians died in internal fighting last month alone.