ISRAEL:Hamas militants threatened to renew suicide attacks inside Israel yesterday after four of their members were killed as Israel stepped up air strikes in the Gaza Strip. On the ground, meanwhile, Hamas and Fatah members continued to battle one another.
While Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert was not contemplating a ground incursion into Gaza, he did approve intensified aerial attacks on Hamas militants.
He has been under pressure to end a policy of restraint after dozens of rockets were fired into Israel in recent days, including one which slammed into a school yesterday in the southern town of Sderot, destroying a classroom but not inflicting any injuries.
In the first strike early yesterday afternoon, Israeli aircraft dropped a bomb on a two-storey building housing a Hamas militia in Gaza City, killing one Hamas member and injuring 40 people.
In a second attack, two Hamas militants, including a senior commander, were killed when a missile slammed into their vehicle as they drove through the streets of Gaza city. A fourth Hamas member was killed when Israeli aircraft hit a position manned by the Islamic organisation, also in the city.
In a fourth strike, as darkness fell, three Palestinians were killed when Israeli aircraft fired missiles at their van near the southern Gaza town of Rafah.
Israeli officers said the three were Islamic Jihad members involved in firing rockets into Israel, but Palestinian sources said that all three people killed in the vehicle were civilians.
"This is a declaration of war on Hamas," said a spokesman for the organisation. "All options are now open - including suicide attacks."
Israeli opposition leader and former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on the government to hit infrastructure targets in Gaza, like the electricity and water supply. But senior ministers counselled against actions that would harm the civilian population.
Three militants were killed yesterday in factional fighting between Hamas and Fatah that has left over 40 Palestinians dead in the last five days.
President Mahmoud Abbas, who was scheduled to travel to Gaza yesterday in a bid to end the internal feuding, cancelled his visit because of security concerns.