Israeli aircraft fires missiles into Gaza Strip

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – An Israeli helicopter launched missiles at a Hamas command center in the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday, killing at least four people, after Hamas fired rocket barrages into Israel in an apparent attempt to draw Israel into increasingly violent Palestinian infighting.\nHamas gunmen fatally shot six bodyguards from the rival Fatah movement and mistakenly ambushed a jeep carrying their own fighters, killing five. In all, 16 people were killed in the bloodiest day of Palestinian infighting since violence broke out in the Gaza Strip four days ago.\nIsrael launched an airstrike at a Hamas building after the organization’s militants launched barrage after barrage of rockets at Israeli towns. Palestinian officials said at least four gunmen were killed.\nThe streets of central Gaza City echoed with gunfire and were empty except for gunmen in black ski masks. Terrified residents huddled in dark homes after electricity to some downtown neighborhoods was cut off by a downed power line.\nThe violence threatened to bring down the Palestinians’ two-month-old Hamas-Fatah unity government and brought the Palestinians dangerously close to all-out civil war.\n“What is happening in Gaza endangers not only the unity government, but the Palestinian social fabric, the Palestinian cause and the Palestinian strategy as a whole,” said Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat.\nDespite Israel’s vow to stay out of the fray, its missile strike added another layer of complexity to Gaza’s mayhem, and raised the specter of a large-scale Israeli invasion.\nPolice from the Fatah-allied Preventive Security organization arrested five Hamas men and were driving them through Gaza City when the vehicle was ambushed by Hamas fighters, Preventive Security officials told The Associated Press. Five of the Hamas men were killed, along with two Fatah men, they said.\nHamas radio reported that a Hamas man was killed in another clash, and a nurse in an ambulance was shot in the head after being caught in the crossfire, hospital officials said. Her family said she was brain dead and on a respirator.\nA group of about 200 Palestinians marched in central Gaza City, waving Palestinian flags and demanding an end to the fighting. Dozens of masked gunmen used the cover of the demonstration to improve their positions on the street, and then opened fire on the demonstrators, wounding one in the leg. The rest fled.\nIn Gaza City, Hamas gunmen set fire to an 11-story apartment building housing Fatah lawmaker Nema Sheik Ali, the wife of the head of Preventive Security. Witnesses said the gunmen broke into her fifth-floor apartment and beat up her and two of her children before torching the building. The militants prevented people from evacuating as women and children screamed, pleading to be let out.\nIn four days of fighting, 41 people have been killed and dozens more have been injured. Most of the dead have been from Fatah.\nFighting raged close to President Mahmoud Abbas’ heavily guarded compound, which was also targeted by Hamas mortar fire overnight, and the bodies of two Fatah gunmen were sprawled on the street nearby. Abbas, a moderate from Fatah, was not present.