The Palestinian group Islamic Jihad has said it is considering halting its rocket attacks on Israel following a request from Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president.

On Friday, Abbas met leaders of the hard-line group, which has carried out numerous suicide bombings and rocket attacks against Israeli targets, and urged them to halt the violence.

"Abbas said the truce is a national necessity," said Khedr Habib, an Islamic Jihad leader in Gaza.

"We said the truce must be mutual ... and part of a national consensus."

Islamic Jihad's website, quoting Khaled al-Batch, another leader of the group, said Abbas' proposal is "worth studying."

While Islamic Jihad is not the only group to fire rockets, it has repeatedly resisted calls from Abbas to end its attacks on Israel.

A halt in rocket fire by the group would be a rare success for Abbas, who hopes to revive peace talks with Israel.

Israeli troops conducting an arrest raid on Friday in the northern West Bank opened fire at a crowd of Palestinian protesters, killing one and wounding many, Israeli and Palestinian officials have said.

The Israeli army said the crowd attacked the soldiers with rocks and firebombs, and the soldiers responded with warning shots and live fire.

A fire fight with Palestinian gunmen followed, army officials said.

A crowd of some 200 rioters confronted the soldiers shortly after they arrived in the town of Qalqiliya and surrounded a home where a wanted Hamas militant was believed to be inside.

Palestinian hospital officials said more than 30 people were wounded, including three people in critical condition.

Palestinian witnesses said larger numbers of troops were moving into Qalqiliya as the operation continued.

Air strikes

In another incursion, an Israeli Apache helicopter fired two missiles into the home of a local leader of the Ezzedine al-Qissam Brigades, eyewitnesses have said.

There were no casualties reported in the strike which targeted the home of Alaa Aqilan, a local commander of a Hamas-controlled police force in the Shatti Refugee camp in Gaza City.

Minutes later, a second strike hit a home in the Zeitoun neighbourhood on Gaza City's eastern fringe.

Hundreds of Palestinians have formed a human shield around the home of a fighter in the northern Gaza strip to prevent an Israeli airstrike on the building.

People surrounded the home of Weil Baroud, a commander of the Popular Resistance Committees in the northern town of Beit Lahiya, after he received a warning from the Israeli army late Saturday giving him 30 minutes to leave the house.

Baroud is charged with firing homemade rockets at Israel. Crowds of people stood on the rooftop and in the yard of the home.

Nour Odeh, Aljazeera's correspondent, reported that it was the first time such an act has been seen in the Gaza strip by residents, but could not say whether it would be enough to prevent an Israeli airstrike.

The crowd chanted anti-Israel and anti-American slogans, and people said they were prepared to give their lives to protect the home.

"Yes to martyrdom. No to surrender," the crowd chanted.

Nizar Rayan, a local Hamas leader who joined the protest, said: "We came here to protect this fighter, to protect his house and to prove that we are capable of defeating this Zionist policy."

Israel routinely orders residents out of their homes ahead of airstrikes on suspected weapons-storage facilities, saying it wants to avoid casualties.

Odeh said: "This is a usual type of tactic from Israel in the Gaza strip. They have been using it for months now. This is a type of psychological warfare.

"Weil Baroud is a member of a political faction that although is not represented in parliament does have a lot of support on the streets, especially in Gaza."

An Israeli aircraft has attacked a car carrying Hamas fighters on a crowded Gaza City street.

Hospital officials said an elderly passerby aged over 70 died of his wounds after being hit in the strike.

They said two men in the vehicle and seven other passersby, including two children, were wounded.

Palestinian witnesses said that the attack took place near a mosque in Gaza City's Zeitoun neighbourhood as worshippers were leaving after prayers.

An Israeli missile strike killed two
people late on Monday in Gaza
Two Palestinians have been killed in Gaza City after the Israeli military launched a raid deep into the Gaza Strip.

An Israeli man was also seriously injured when Palestinian fighters fired rockets at the town of Sderot during a visit by Louise Arbour, the UN high commissioner for human rights, following the incursion on Tuesday.

A Hamas fighter and a 70-year-old Palestinian woman were killed during the fighting in the Zeitoun area of Gaza City.

A total of 370 Palestinians and four Israelis have died since Israel intensified its attacks on Gaza following the capture of an Israeli soldier in a cross-border raid in June.

Speaking after the rocket attack on Sderot, Christopher Gunness, spokesman for the Office of the UN Special Co-ordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, said: "They (the rockets) landed a few hundred yards away from where we were."

Arbour arrived in Sderot after a visit to the Gaza Strip as part of a five-day tour of the Palestinian territories and Israel.

Eleven Palestinians were wounded in Israel's air strike of Tuesday, local medical and security sources said in Beit Hanoun.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military and no immediate information on whether the Palestinian casualties were fighters or civilians.

Missile strike

Israeli forces also entered the nearby Jabaliya refugee camp, as well as the northern town of Beit Lahiya.

Hospital officials named the dead fighter as Aiman Hassanein, a senior member of the governing Hamas organisation.

Witnesses said he was killed during an exchange of fire and that his brother was detained by troops.

The incursion came hours after an Israeli missile attack on a car in Gaza killed two Hamas fighters and injured five bystanders late on Monday night.

Human chain

Hundreds of Palestinians gathered around two homes of Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters after the Israeli military warned that the buildings would be destroyed in air raids, a security source said.

The source said: "They formed a human chain to prevent the two houses from being destroyed."

Hamas's armed wing hailed the success of human shields, calling it a "national duty" for Palestinians to protect the homes of fighters from Israeli air strikes.

The Israeli defence minister, Amir Peretz, said on Monday that Israel would continue its military operations in Gaza but had no intention of reoccupying the area.

Israeli armour raided northern Gaza
again on Wednesday
Gun battles have erupted after Israeli ground troops backed by tanks and armoured vehicles raided the northern Gaza towns of Beit Hanoun and Jebaliya.

Palestinian sources said Israeli troops also stormed the house of a prominent Hamas official on Wednesday.

It followed promises by Israel that it would continue "targeted killings" in Gaza.

Snipers positioned themselves on rooftops and three Palestinian girls were wounded by bullets outside a school in Beit Hanoun, Palestinian officials said.

Palestinian rocket attacks on southern Israel continued despite the Israeli raid into northern Gaza.

Forced entry

A 22-year-old Palestinian affiliated with the military wing of the ruling Hamas party was shot dead while launching a projectile, the group said. Earlier on Wednesday, a rocket hit an Israeli school just before pupils arrived.

Palestinian fighters, led by members of the ruling Hamas party's military wing, faced off against Israeli troops in both towns with land mines, anti-tank missiles and rocket-propelled grenades, security officials said.

Israeli troops forcibly entered the home of Jamila Shanti, a Hamas legislator who earlier in the month helped to organise a women's demonstration that let dozens of Palestinian fighters escape an Israeli siege on a Beit Hanoun mosque.

Shanti said she was not in the house at the time, contrary to Palestinian security officials' earlier reports.

Israeli troops locked the building’s occupants in one room before throwing furniture and clothes out of windows, Shanti said.

The Israeli army confirmed it was operating in northern Gaza as part of its ongoing offensive against Gaza rocket squads, but gave no other details.

It said it had no information that its troops were surrounding Shanti's house.

A Palestinian fighter was killed and two others were seriously wounded in separate raids on the northern West Bank town of Jenin.

Fadi Omur, 17, from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, the military wing of the Fatah movement, was shot dead by troops, medical sources said.

Meanwhile, two senior Islamic Jihad fighters were seriously injured when Israeli troops opened fire on the car in which they were driving in the Jenin refugee camp, Palestinian sources said.

Further raids

The army's operations came after Israel's security cabinet said it would continue its military raids and "targeted killings" in Gaza.

However, it did not order a large-scale assault in response to Palestinian rocket attacks.

Some cabinet members wanted Ehud Olmert, Israel’s prime minister, to approve tougher action to halt rocket salvos aimed at towns and villages that border Gaza.

A security cabinet statement also called for continued cooperation with Cairo to prevent the smuggling of weapons into Gaza from neighbouring Egypt.

Palestinian fighters say the launching of missiles into Israel is a response to continued Israeli army assaults against Palestinians in the occupied territories.

Aid work suspended

The Red Cross has meanwhile suspended its activities in Gaza after Palestinian armed men kidnapped two of its workers, its local office said.

Iyad Nasir, a spokesman in Gaza for the The International Committee of the Red Cross, said the two Italian aid workers were released early on Wednesday and were reported to be unharmed.

Over the past two years, there has been a number of kidnappings of foreign aid workers and journalists in Gaza, usually by groups or families pressing the government for money or job guarantees.

In most cases, the hostages were quickly released and none have been seriously harmed.

The Red Cross said Claudio Moroni and Gianmarco Onorato were abducted in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza after their car was stopped by armed men.

Iyad Nasr, a spokesman for the Red Cross's Gaza office, said the organisation had ceased all field operations and would intervene only "in matters of life and death".

Workers have been ordered to stay in their offices because of fears for their safety, he said.

Three Israeli soldiers were injured when Fatima al-Nejar, a mother of nine, blew herself up
Israeli forces have killed eight Palestinians including six armed men in raids in the Gaza Strip.

The killings on Thursday came as a 57-year-old woman blew herself up near Israeli soldiers near the Jabalya refugee camp, slightly wounding three of them. The armed wing of Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack in an internet statement.

An Israeli air strike on a car in northern Gaza killed three fighters from the Popular Resistance Committee, including the local commander.

Three other fighters were killed in separate attacks. Hospital officials said a civilian was shot dead by Israeli troops east of the town of Beit Lahiya.

Another 19-year-old civilian was killed when Israeli tanks firing machineguns stormed a housing project in Beit Lahiya.

Human bomb

Hamas claimed responsibility for the attempted suicide bombing and identified the woman as Fatima al-Nejar, a mother-of-nine.
The Israeli army said soldiers spotted the woman approaching them with an explosive device and threw a stun grenade at her. The woman detonated the device, killing herself.

During the day, Israeli troops periodically fought gun battles with Palestinian fighters.

Israel said troops were operating in suburbs around Beit Lahiya, but denied forces were in densely-populated areas.

Two Israeli soldiers were also wounded by anti-tank missiles, the army said.

Residents said the incursion into Beit Lahiya was one of the biggest since Israel launched its offensive in late June after fighters, including Hamas members, abducted a soldier in a cross-border raid from Gaza.

The objective was then broadened to target rocket-launching squads, who have killed two Israelis in the past week. Fighters say the rockets are a response to army assaults.

Israel has killed nearly 380 Palestinians in Gaza, about half of them civilians, since it began the offensive, hospital officials and residents say. Three soldiers have been killed.

More than 380 Palestinians have been killed in the
the latest Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip
Palestinian groups have offered to stop firing rockets into Israel in exchange for a halt to all attacks in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank, an official from Islamic Jihad has said.

An Israeli government official immediately rejected the offer and demanded that Palestinian fighters lay down their weapons first.

"For the good of the national Palestinian interest ... there is a position supporting calm [a ceasefire] by stopping rocket fire in return for an end to the aggression against our people in Gaza and the West Bank," Khader Habib, an Islamic Jihad leader, told Reuters news agency on Thursday.

He said that the main Palestinian factions, including the governing Hamas, president Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah and other smaller groups had agreed the ceasefire offer during a meeting with Ismail Haniya, the Palestinian prime minister.

Offer limited

Habib said a deal would only take effect after Israel agrees and actually ends military actions. The offer was limited only to rocket firing and did not include other forms of attacks such as cross-border attacks and suicide bombings.

"... there is a position supporting calm [a ceasefire] by stopping rocket fire in return for an end to the aggression against our people in Gaza and the West Bank."

Khader Habib, Islamic Jihad leader
Miri Eisin, an Israeli government spokeswoman, said that the Palestinians had to act first.

"Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other groups have chosen to fire rockets into Israel day in and day out. Israel will continue to defend its citizens against the rockets and will only stop its actions once those who fire, store and make the rockets and those who smuggle in their components cease their actions," she said.

Habib said that Haniya would take the proposal to Abbas in the hope that the president would then put it to Israel.

"If the Israelis agree then the deal will be ratified by all parties. The implementation of the agreement will be pending on whether we will see an end to the aggression on the ground," Habib said.

On Wednesday, the Israeli government decided to press on with a five-month-old offensive launched after militants seized a soldier in a cross-border raid from the Gaza Strip last June.

More than 380 Palestinians have been killed since the offensive began

The Israeli army has been operating
in northern Gaza for months

Israeli soldiers have shot dead a Hamas member who was filming the group's operations in northern Gaza.

Palestinian medical officials said the man was killed on Friday by Israeli soldiers operating in the town of Jebaliya.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the press.

Other Palestinian sources said the man was from the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the ruling Hamas movement. They identified him as Ayman Juda, 22, from Beit Lahiya.

The army said it was checking the report. A 10-year-old Palestinian boy was later reported shot dead in Gaza.

Suicide bomber

On Thursday, Fatima al-Nejar, a 68-year-old grandmother from Jebaliya, blew herself up near Israeli soldiers, lightly wounding three of them.

The Israeli army said soldiers spotted the woman approaching them with an explosive device near the refugee camp and threw a stun grenade at her. The woman detonated the device, killing herself, the army said.

"I offer myself as a sacrifice to God and to the homeland"

Fatima al-Nejar,
suicide grandmother

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Al-Nejar's
family said she had nine children and nearly 30 grandchildren.

Nour Odeh, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Gaza, spoke to al-Najer's family who said that they believed she had decided to take action because of the suffering she had seen of the Palestinian people throughout her life.

"The family told me that she simply couldn't take it any more," Odeh reported.

"Six out of seven of her children were imprisoned and injured by the Israeli army. Her house was demolished and her grandson was shot dead by the Israeli army in 2002."

Al-Nejar was the first known Palestinian grandmother to attempt a suicide bombing against Israelis.

Fouad, one of her sons, 31, told Reuters: "I am very proud of what she did. Allahu akbar [God is greatest]."

On a video released by Hamas, the woman read out a statement saying she wanted to dedicate her death to the Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails and to Ismail Haniya, the prime minister. Thousands of Palestinians are being held by Israel.

In the video she wore a black explosives belt and had an M-16 assault rifle slung over her neck.

"I offer myself as a sacrifice to God and to the homeland," she said.

Armed Palestinian walks past a house bombed by Israeli forces
An Israeli ground offensive in Gaza continues, as does the bombing
Israel has dismissed an offer by Palestinian militant groups to stop firing rockets into Israel, if Israel ends attacks on Palestinians.

An Israeli government spokeswoman, Miri Eisen, said the militants had offered only a partial ceasefire.

She said the offer of an end to firing rockets from Gaza showed a lack of real commitment to peace.

The conditional Palestinian offer was made after a meeting on Thursday of all armed factions, including Hamas.

The militant group Hamas leads the Palestinian Authority.

Israel has in the past consistently rejected ceasefire offers by Palestinian militants, saying it refuses to do deals of any kind with what it describes as terrorist organisations.

Rocket fire

Palestinian Qassam rockets are fired into Israel on a daily basis. They have killed two Israelis in the past 10 days.

Fatma Najar, Palestinian suicide bomber
A 57-year-old Palestinian woman killed herself in an attack on Israeli forces

Israel has launched frequent ground offensives into Gaza Strip to try to stop the militants who launch the rockets. It has also shelled targets in Gaza heavily.

Israel evacuated its settlements and military bases in Gaza last year, but the military renewed ground operations after militants captured an Israeli soldier in a border raid in June.

Since June, Israeli troops have killed more than 400 Palestinians in Gaza, roughly half of them civilians. Three Israeli soldiers have died in operations and two civilians were killed by rocket fire.

Continuing offensive

On Thursday, at least five Palestinians were killed by Israeli military action in the Gaza Strip as troops pressed on with operations against armed groups.

Two militants were killed in an air strike in Beit Lahiya and two others died in armed clashes with troops. Another man was also shot dead.

The deaths came as a 57-year-old female suicide bomber attacked Israeli troops in Jabaliya. Three Israeli troops were slightly wounded in the blast.

The Israeli army says that a group of soldiers became suspicious of an approaching woman.

They threw a stun grenade at her but she managed to detonate explosives that she was carrying.

Governing Palestinian party Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack by the bomber and named her as Fatma Najar, a mother and grandmother.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' office said that Israel should in turn stop military operations in Gaza and withdraw its forces.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has agreed to the plan, his spokeswoman said. The ceasefire will go into effort from 0600 (0400GMT) on Sunday.

Israel had said its Gaza operation was to prevent cross-border rocket attacks.

The Popular Resistance Committees said the killing of Abdel Rasek Nasser would be punished
A Palestinian fighter and a woman have been killed in an Israeli military operation near Jenin in the northern West Bank.

Abdel Razek Nasser, a local leader in the Popular Resistance Committees, died during an exchange of fire with Israeli soldiers in Kabatiyeh.

The woman, a neighbour, was killed as she tried to help, sources said.

"The crime of the assassination of Abdel Razek Nasser will not pass without punishment," the Popular Resistance Committees said in a statement.

It said it would discuss with other factions whether they should continue to honour a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip which took effect on Sunday.

"Anyone violating the national agreement will be considered to be breaking the law"

Abdel Razek Mejaidie, security adviser to Mahmoud Abbas

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An Israeli army spokesman said they shot a "suspicious figure" who approached them and then another unidentified person who took a gun from the man lying on the ground.

The Palestinians agreed to stop rocket attacks from Gaza in exchange for an end to military operations in the area

Islamic Jihad had said it would not agree to a ceasefire unless Israeli military activity was also ended in the occupied West Bank and fired several rockets into Israel. The attacks from Gaza stopped on Sunday afternoon after pressure from Hamas and Fatah.

Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, has said he hopes the truce can be extended to the West Bank.

Thousands of Palestinian security officers have taken up positions across northern Gaza in an attempt to prevent fighters from launching more raids on Israel.

Abdel Razek Mejaidie, the security adviser to Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, said: "The instructions are clear. Anyone violating the national agreement will be considered to be breaking the law."

An official said 13,000 Palestinian security officials were on the ground in Gaza to prevent rocket attacks being launched.

Israeli troops in the West Bank have also arrested 15 people belonging to Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party, the ruling Hamas movement and Islamic Jihad, the army said.

Scores of Palestinians have been killed in Israeli offensive in recent months (file photo)
Israeli soldiers have shot and wounded two Palestinians who approached Israel's border with the Gaza Strip, and arrested 45 Palestinians in Kufr Dan village, near the West Bank city of Jenin.

The shootings in Gaza are the first time the Israeli military has opened fire in the area since a November 26 truce.

Palestinian ambulance workers said on Wednesday that the two men were unarmed.

An Israeli military spokesman said they had behaved suspiciously and ignored warning shots to make them move away from an Israeli-built border fence. The shootings occurred in separate locations on Wednesday, he said.

In the first incident, one Palestinian climbed a pole near the fence while another appeared to place an explosive charge on the ground, the spokesman said.

"The Israeli force called on them to move back and fired in the air. They moved away," he said.

"Later, several dozen people crowded near the fence, along with the same two men. One of them, using the crowd for cover, appeared to continue to place a charge. The force then fired at him, and according to our information, he was shot in the leg."

In the second incident, near the Erez border crossing, a Palestinian crossed a perimeter fence, drawing shouted warnings from Israeli soldiers to turn back before he reached the main barrier.

"He didn't. They fired in the air and he still didn't stop. Then they fired at him, hitting him in the leg," the spokesman said.

Local residents said the two men may have been collecting scrap metal in the area.

West Bank arrests

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Al Jazeera's Ali al-Sumodi reports that Israeli forces have launched military operations in Jenin city in the West Bank and arrested several families.

Most of the arrested people were reported to be relatives of wanted activists of al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and al-Quds Brigades.

More than 30 military vehicles entered west Jenin on Wednesday and proceeded to surround houses in the area.

Israeli forces arrested the family and relatives of Ibrahim and Ramzi Abed, two al-Aqsa Brigades leaders, and arrested relatives of members of al-Quds Brigades and Hamas movement.

Israel has said that there is a Palestinian cell in Kufr Dan village that plans to carry out military attacks. As a result Israel has escalated its operations in the area.

People in the area have called, through Al Jazeera, on human and international organisations to intervene in order to free the arrested families that include old people and students.

Mourners firing automatic weapons have stormed into the compound of parliament during a funeral procession for three boys killed earlier by unidentified attackers.

The children, sons of a Palestinian intelligence official loyal to Mahmoud Abbas, the president, were shot dead in a car outside their school in Gaza on Monday.

Witnesses said the mourners fired at the Palestinian Legislative Council Headquarters building. It was unclear whether anyone was hurt.

About 2,000 people took part in the funeral march, including the boys' father, Colonel Baha Balousha, who was heavily guarded by armed men.

As children were going to school in the Ramal district of Gaza City, armed men fired on a car killing the sons of Colonel Balousha, a senior Palestinian intelligence officer and Fatah loyalist.

There were no claims of responsibility. The boys were aged between six and eight.

Relatives carried the boys, whose bodies were wrapped in sheets, in their arms.

The mourners marched through the streets of the city escorted by hundreds of pro-Fatah security officers.

A senior Palestinian intelligence official in the occupied West Bank condemned the latest attack.

He said it was unclear who was behind it.

Besides internal political unrest, Gaza is also riven with clan fighting and a surge in criminal violence since the imposition of a Western aid embargo on the Hamas government that has increased poverty.

An adult was also killed and four other people were wounded in Monday's drive-by shooting.

Chaos

Fadwa Nabulsi, 12, who witnessed the scene, said: "I was walking with my young brother, Wael, when shooting took place... We started screaming and children started running.

"I lost Wael ... but I found him hiding in a falafel shop. I'm trying to find my father to take us back home."

Mourners heading for the boys' funeral on
Monday [Picture: Laila El-Haddad]

Palestinian police tried to calm children at the scene. After news of the shooting spread, hundreds of parents went to Gaza City's Shifa hospital.

After the incident, Fatah supporters tried to close Palestine Street, which has nine schools on it, shouting: "God help us take revenge against the killers."

Elsewhere in the city, other Fatah supporters were blocking off main roads with burning tyres. Some have called for a general strike.

While Gaza has regularly suffered violence, a direct attack on children is unprecedented.

Tension in Gaza has heightened in recent weeks after Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, raised the possibility of calling early parliamentary and presidential elections.

Official reaction

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Khalid Abu Hilal, a spokesperson for the Palestinian interior ministry, has described the killing of the children as "ugly and cruel".

He said: "The only thing we can understand from Monday's cruel crime, which targeted innocent Palestinian children, is that those who carried it out targeted the internal security and wanted to spark strife, security disorder and chaos in the country."

Abu Hilal said the interior minister has ordered internal security and interior ministry paramilitary forces to arrest the culprits and open an investigation.

Regarding the attack by mourners on the parliament building in Gaza City, Abu Hilal said: "It is clear that, over the last few days, a lot of criminals have been targeting the Palestinian street.

"During this period, the interior minister has achieved success in such areas as storming drugs dealers' dens, ending attacks on Palestinian citizens' lands, and dissolving car-stealing gangs."

At least one person has been injured in a grenade attack on a rally of the ruling Hamas party.

The attack comes after Ismail Haniya, the Palestinian prime minister, cut short a foreign tour.

He was due to be travelling for a month but violence in the Palestinian territories between supporters of Hamas and Fatah has forced his early return.

The grenade was thrown at a rally in the Nusseirat refugee camp which was being held in protest at the killing of an Islamic tribunal judge who was shot dead in the southern Gaza town of Khan Yunis earlier Wednesday.

Hamas has blamed a Fatah "death squad" for the killing of Bassam al-Farah.

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Al-Farah was a prominent member of the Hamas movement.

Witnesses said four gunmen grabbed al-Fara as he emerged from a taxi outside a courthouse.

Three of them forced him onto his knees while the fourth pulled out a weapon and shot him, they said.

Mushir al-Masri, a Hamas member of parliament, said: "The seekers of the coup in Fatah bear the responsibility for all actions of chaos taking place in the Palestinian streets."

Tawfik Abu Khoussa, a Fatah spokesman, rejected the accusations.

"We condemn all acts of anarchy whatever may be behind them, we call on the brothers in Hamas to stop firing accusations before the investigation," he said.

Security concerns

Speaking to reporters in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, on Wednesday, Haniya dismissed fears that the violence could develop into a civil war.

"We want to assure you that words such as 'civil war' don't exist in our dictionary. They don't exist in our make-up, in our culture," he said.

"We don't have time for internal feuds. We will protect the national unity of the Palestinian people and we will thwart any attempt to instigate an inter-Palestinian struggle."

However, one sign of the growing uncertainty and deteriorating security situation was the demonstration outside the parliament building in Gaza.

Protesters are calling for national unity
Hundreds of protesters had earlier gathered in the square to protest at the killing of three young children of a Fatah-allied Palestinian intelligence officer two days ago.

Nour Odeh, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Gaza, said the crowd comprised schoolchildren, mothers, civil society activists and former members of the Palestinian Legislative Council.

The crowd marched into the PLC where speeches were made to current members, all saying the only way to achieve national security was through national unity.

Armed factions

Hamas and Fatah have adopted entrenched positions of late. The Fatah-led PLO executive committee has recommended calling early elections.

"If I am forced to stop an outlaw I will do it again and I will not regret it"

Commander, Executive Force
These calls have been rejected by Hamas, which says the executive committee does not have the authority to make such recommendations.

Meanwhile on the ground, the cycle of killing continues. Al Jazeera's David Chater joined a patrol of the Hames-led Executive Force in Khan Younis.

The group has had its numbers thinned by targeted killings by Israel, but with more than 5,000 men they are a force to be reckoned with.

Its commander is on that country's wanted list and he told Al Jazeera that his group's mission is to protect the Palestinian people from chaos.

He has already been in a shooting match with rival Palestinian factions and, although he says he hopes he is not in that situation again, he said that if he is "forced to stop an outlaw, I will do it again and I won't regret it".