Hamas kept up rocket fire into Israel today in defiance of a ceasefire call by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli threats to escalate military strikes in the Gaza Strip.
In the first internal Palestinian violence since a May 19 ceasefire, fighting between Hamas gunmen and members of a security force loyal to Abbas's Fatah faction erupted in the territory. There were no reports of casualties.
At least seven rockets struck the town of Sderot in southern Israel but no one was hurt, the military said. Previous salvoes during an almost two-week-old surge of cross-border dighting have killed two Israelis -- one a motorist hit yesterday.
Israel has struck back with an aerial bombing campaign that has killed more than 40 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them militants. Yet the failure to end the rocket barrages has prompted the Israeli government to speak of tougher action.
"I think the measures are effective but not enough, and we have a large battery of some more steps that I hope we will be able to take," Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter said during a visit to Sderot. He did not elaborate.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Sunday that Hamas would be fought "without limitation". But having been rapped by a commission of inquiry for his handling of last year's costly Lebanon war, Olmert has resisted rightist calls for a major ground sweep of Hamas bastions in the congested Gaza Strip.
In the West Bank, Israeli troops detained in the Palestinian city of Ramallah a senior militant from al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which is part of Fatah, who was involved in deadly attacks against Israelis, an army spokesman said.