Grenade Fired at Home of Palestinian PM

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - A rocket-propelled grenade hit the home of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas on Tuesday, in what Hamas said was an attempted assassination. The house was damaged, but Haniyeh and his family were not harmed.

Earlier in the day, four mortar shells slammed into the Gaza City compound of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, but he was in the West Bank at the time, and nobody was hurt Palestinian security officials said.

Just hours before the attack on Haniyeh's home, gunmen, apparently from Hamas, laid siege to the house of Jamal Abu al-Jediyan, the senior Fatah official in northern Gaza, then dragged him outside and killed him, security officials said. Medics said he was hit with 45 bullets.

The attacks came during the bloodiest 24-hour period yet in latest round of Hamas-Fatah fighting, which erupted again in May, after several weeks of lull. Eighteen people were killed Monday and early Tuesday, including several in street executions, as hospitals turned into battle grounds.

Both Hamas and Fatah, on Web sites and in text messages to activists, called for the execution of the other side's military and political leaders. Both sides described the fighting, which is turning more brutal with each day, as all-out civil war.

Haniyeh's house is located in the Shati refugee camp, on the outskirts of Gaza City. His son, Abdel Salam, said an RPG hit the side of the house, damaging it, while the family was inside. No one was hurt, he said.

A Hamas Web site described the incident as an assassination attempt. Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum accused Fatah of targeting Palestinian institutions to undermine Hamas rule. "They crossed all the red lines," he said.

Also Tuesday, Hamas said Fatah gunmen kidnapped a member of the Hamas military wing and executed him in the street. The dead man was identified as a cousin of Abdel Aziz Rantisi, a Hamas leader assassinated by Israel in 2004.

The latest fighting disrupted final exams for university and high school students. The three universities called off final exams set for Tuesday. High schools were trying to move test centers to areas out of the range of fire, said Mohammed Abu Shkeir, the deputy minister of education.

Al-Jediyan was a top aide to Gaza Fatah strongman Mohammed Dahlan. Al-Jediyan's brother was also killed, execution-style, by two shots from close range, hospital officials said.

Fatah spokesman Maher Mikdad harshly denounced the killing. "What is this, if not a war," he said, pledging revenge.

Two others were killed in battles late Monday in northern Gaza, security and hospital officials said.

Nabil Abu Rdeneh, an aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, said no end was in sight. "You can see for yourself there's no taste for a cease-fire right now," he told The Associated Press by telephone, blaming Hamas.

The frustrated head of the Egyptian security delegation, Maj. Gen. Burhan Hamad, who has been trying to negotiate a truce, told Palestinian TV he would call the people out onto the streets to protest if the two rivals do not agree to stand down.

Early Tuesday, three women and a child were killed when Hamas militants attacked the home of a senior Fatah security official with mortars and grenades, security officials said. The gunmen seized Hassan Abu Rabie and killed his 14-year-old son and three other women in the house, hospital officials said.

Also, Fatah gunmen stormed the house of a Hamas lawmaker and burned it to the ground.

A bloody clash took place Monday in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun. Fatah and Hamas gunmen exchanged fire near the hospital, killing a Hamas supporter. The battle then moved to the hospital, where three men - a father and two sons from the Fatah-allied al-Masri clan - were shot dead.

In another confrontation, the Hamas-controlled Shifa Hospital came under fire from the Fatah-allied Bakr clan, after two of its members were killed in clashes with Hamas. Bakr gunmen fired mortars and rocket-propelled grenades, security officials said, drawing Hamas fire from within the hospital.

Also, a Hamas gunman was shot and killed at a Fatah checkpoint in northern Gaza, security officials said.

The latest deaths brought the number of Palestinians killed since the latest round of infighting erupted in May to more than 80.

Monday's fighting marred the first day of matriculation exams for thousands of high school students in Gaza. Sporadic gunfire could be heard throughout Gaza City during the day, intensifying several times.

Abbas, a moderate who has repeatedly condemned the violence, appealed for calm as students began taking their graduation exams in Gaza and the West Bank.

"This is shameful for our people," Abbas said during a visit to a West Bank school. "I call on everyone to stop this immediately, not only because of the examinations, but also for our people to live a normal life."

About 90 minutes into the weekly Cabinet meeting, shots hit the Gaza City building where the ministers had gathered.

Mohammed Madhoun, an aide to Haniyeh, said the building did not appear to have been deliberately targeted. Instead, he said it was caught in the crossfire between rival Fatah and Hamas forces perched on the roofs of nearby buildings. "The ministers are gone and the shooting is indiscriminate," he said.

Hamas and Fatah have been locked in a violent power struggle since Hamas defeated Fatah in January 2006 legislative elections, ending four decades of Fatah rule.

Hamas brought Fatah into its government in March in an effort to quell the internal strife, but the fighting reignited in mid-May over an unresolved dispute over who controls the powerful security forces.