Clashes in Gaza renew fears of all-out war

TEL AVIV, Israel — As deadly clashes between rival factions Fatah and Hamas escalated for a fourth day on Wednesday, Palestinians in Gaza seemed to have returned to the brink of all-out internecine war that threatens to draw Israeli forces back into the troubled coastal strip of land.

In response to a series of bold Hamas offensives that killed more than 13 people, President Mahmoud Abbas was reportedly mulling declaring a state of emergency in the West Bank and Gaza.

With Gaza largely shut down except for the fighting, Islamic militants fired missiles at the home of a top Fatah security chief, killing several bodyguards.

The latest fighting between the rival militias — about three dozen Palestinians have been killed this week — has wrecked a Hamas-Fatah truce reached in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, in February and exposed the parties' "unity" government as ineffectual, analysts say.

"The government is completely toothless," said Ghassan Khatib, a former cabinet minister under Abbas.

Meanwhile, in the first air strike after months of an informal cease-fire, an Israeli helicopter shot missiles at a Hamas training base in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, killing at least four. The strike was retaliation for rocket salvos that left several injured and many houses damaged in the southern Israel town of Sderot.

Hamas' cross-border rocket salvos were interpreted in Israel as a ploy to tempt the army to order troops into Gaza, which would focus the warring Palestinian militias' attention on a common enemy.

Gazan schools and businesses were closed as residents stayed indoors to stay out of the crossfire and avoid random roadblocks. Many locals expect a new escalation of the fighting.

"Palestinian people feel that the acts of Gaza are a form of betrayal, to the noble cause, and are only bringing shame and dishonor upon all the people," read an editorial from the Jerusalem-based Al Quds newspaper.

The piece compared the Gaza calamity to Palestinian displacement during Israel's 1948 War of Independence. "With their acts, the militants are actually renewing the disasters of 1948, leaving all Palestinians inside the homeland and outside crying and demoralized."

Palestinian Authority officials such as Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, a Hamas leader, have little ability to control gunmen, analysts say.

Gaza has been weakened by an international economic boycott of the Hamas government, while Israel has crippled the territory further by limiting passage of civilians and commercial goods at crossings.

Independent militias linked to prominent Gaza families have moved into the security vacuum left by the Palestinian Authority, and also profit from the continued fighting.

Meanwhile, Hamas' military wing wants to consolidate its control in Gaza, where it is militarily superior but remains wary of efforts by the United States and Israel to prop up forces loyal to Abbas.