Abbas Heads to Gaza to End Infighting

In this photo released by the Palestinian Authority, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, left, meets EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana in the West Bank town of Ramallah Sunday Aug. 13, 2006. Center is Palestinian legislator Saeb Erekat. (AP Photo / Omar Rashidi, Palestinian Authority) (Omar Rashidi - AP)

RAMALLAH, West Bank -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas traveled to the Gaza Strip on Monday to try to end infighting between Palestinian factions and to work with the Hamas-led Cabinet to form a national unity government.

Abbas adviser Nimr Hamad said the president would also try to persuade Hamas and other militant factions to stop firing rockets at Israel from Gaza and to release Cpl. Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier captured June 25 by Hamas-backed militants, sparking a widescale Israeli offensive in Gaza.

Abbas hoped to bring about an end to Israel's offensive, Hamad said.

Meanwhile, an Israeli airstrike late Monday destroyed a house in the Gaza Strip, injuring at least eight people, officials said. The military said an Islamic Jihad command center was targeted but Palestinians said the building was empty.

Palestinian officials said the house had been evacuated two days before when Israeli officials called the residents and told them a strike was imminent.

Eight people were wounded in the attack, two moderately, hospital officials said. Many of the wounded were bystanders, though the house's owner and his wife and children were outside the building during the attack and were wounded as well.

Another airstrike later in the Beit Hanoun neighborhood destroyed the house of Hussein Abu Odeh, a member of the militant Popular Resistance Committees. There were no injuries.

The attacks came hours after a cease-fire took hold in Israel's second offensive against Islamic militants in Lebanon. That truce did not include Gaza.

Hamad said Abbas hopes to form a national unity government based on a document drafted by Palestinian militants calling for a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, an implicit recognition of Israel's right to exist. Hamas officials approved the document in June.

Israel has demanded that Palestinians in Gaza end their rocket attacks on Israel or face an expanded offensive, Hamad said.

Mahmoud Ramahi, a Hamas lawmaker, said his group was interested in a national unity government but would proceed with negotiations only after Israel released Hamas lawmakers it arrested after Shalit's capture. Ramahi said Hamas also supported an end to the rocket fire but only in return for a halt to Israeli military operations.

Shalit would be freed only in the framework of a prisoner swap, he said, a demand Israel has refused.