Israel Hits Gaza as Factions Battle

Hamas Accuses Fatah of Collusion

JERUSALEM, May 18 -- Israeli aircraft pounded border posts, headquarters buildings and cars across the northern Gaza Strip on Friday, killing at least seven Hamas gunmen as they confronted their armed rivals from the Fatah party in the streets.

Hamas accused Israel and Fatah of working in tandem against the group, a radical Islamic movement that won January 2006 parliamentary elections.

In a statement issued late Friday, Hamas accused the Preventive Security Service, which is controlled by Fatah, of collaborating with "multiple foreign governments." The statement said Fatah agents were passing on "dangerous information" about the location and operations of the "Palestinian resistance," shorthand for Hamas's military wing.

Fatah and Hamas have been contending for control of the Palestinian security branches since last year. Fatah is a secular party that recognizes Israel. Hamas, known formally as the Islamic Resistance Movement, does not. The parties agreed in February to form a power-sharing government to end the factional fighting, an accord now in jeopardy.

This week, nearly 50 Hamas and Fatah gunmen have died in Gaza as a result of factional fighting; in addition, at least 19 Palestinians, all of them apparently Hamas gunmen, have been killed in Israeli airstrikes.

In sporadic street clashes Friday, one gunman from each party was killed and more than a dozen others were wounded. A Palestinian civilian, identified as a fisherman, was killed in crossfire.

The fighting began with a Fatah attack on Gaza City's Islamic University, the alma mater of many Hamas leaders. Hamas officials said members of the presidential guard, a Fatah-controlled unit loyal to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, fired rocket-propelled grenades and mortar rounds at the campus.

The roughly 4,000-member presidential guard will soon be receiving training under a $40 million U.S.-funded program designed to strengthen Abbas, a relative moderate. Fatah leaders denied the unit was involved in the attack.

Gunfire rattled throughout the city for much of the day. During Friday prayers, Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas called on gunmen from both Fatah and his party to leave the streets and free hostages taken in recent days.

Hours before dawn, Israeli military aircraft fired on a post near Gaza's border used by the Izzadine al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas's military wing, whose members have fired more than 100 rockets into Israel in the past five days. Five gunmen were killed in the strike.

But Hamas gunmen fired 17 crude Qassam rockets toward Israel during the day. Israeli military officials said two of the rockets struck buildings in the Israeli city of Sderot, injuring two civilians.

Four Israeli airstrikes followed into Friday evening, including one that hit a car carrying two Hamas gunmen, killing both. More than 10 Palestinians were wounded in the Israeli strikes during the day.

Special correspondent Islam Abdulkareem in Gaza contributed to this report.