Last update - 00:00 16/10/2006
Gunmen shoot at IDF troops operating in Jenin and Qabatiyah
By Haaretz Service and Reuters
Gunmen opened fire on Israel Defense Forces troops early Monday morning in the West Bank villages of Jenin and Qabatiyah, Israel Radio reported.
According to the report, soldiers arrested five of the militants.
Rival Palestinian gunmen from the Hamas and Fatah factions exchanged fire on Sunday in the Gaza Strip, wounding at least one person, witnesses and emergency workers said.
It was the latest clash of a mounting power struggle between Hamas, an Islamic militant group that won an election last January, and the once-dominant Fatah.
Palestinian witnesses said gunmen on both sides opened fire as Hamas militants surrounded the home of a gunman from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya.
Al-Aqsa is an armed wing of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement.
Hours later, a gunman shot and wounded a Hamas employee of the Palestinian Finance Ministry near the West Bank town of Qalqilyah, a security source said, adding he suspected the incident was linked to feuding between Fatah and Hamas.
At least 15 Palestinians were killed in factional fighting that erupted earlier this month.
The clashes ensued as Israel pursued a raid in northern Gaza in a bid to halt rocket fire at southern towns and secure the release of a soldier captured in a June 25 cross-border raid.
Israel launched an air strike against a rocket launcher in northern Gaza, causing no injuries, a military spokeswoman said.
Israel Defense Forces troops killed eight Gaza gunmen on Saturday, seven of them from Hamas.