Rival Palestinian factions battled in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, raising the weekend death toll to at least five and 39 injured in the fiercest internal fighting since a ceasefire was declared nearly a month ago. Hours after Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip infiltrated into Israel at a key border crossing, Israeli aircraft bombed a building used by Islamic Jihad, causing two injuries, local residents said. The Israeli army confirmed the air strike targeted Islamic Jihad, which took part in SaturdayÂ’s cross-border raid. The army said a separate air strike targeted a weapons production facility used by a militant offshoot of Fatah that joined Islamic Jihad in the raid. Local residents said a dairy truck was hit, but no one was hurt.
The heaviest fighting between the ruling Hamas Islamist group and President Mahmoud AbbasÂ’s secular Fatah faction took place in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, where hundreds of rival gunmen took up positions on street corners and rooftops. Hamas and Fatah pounded each otherÂ’s positions with rocket-propelled grenades and machineguns, according to locals, who took shelter indoors as the rivals fought block by block. Two men from Fatah and one from Hamas were killed, hospital officials said. At least 9 injured Palestinians were in critical condition out of total 39, hospital officials said. The number of injured overwhelmed the local hospital, forcing officials to send people to neighbouring towns for treatment.