Intensified street battles put civilians at risk

Hamas is apparently trying to draw Israel into the fight.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) -- With fighting raging in the streets outside, Fatah lawmaker Nema Sheik Ali was huddling with her children inside their apartment when Hamas gunmen burst through the front door Wednesday.
The gunmen beat her and two of her children with their weapons, she said, then they set the fifth-floor apartment on fire.
Ali also is the wife of a top Palestinian security commander, and the family's affiliation with Fatah makes them a prime target in the renewed factional fighting between the movement and the Islamic militants of Hamas.
Outside, gunfire and explosions raged across Gaza City, killing at least 21 people in the most widespread fighting of nearly a year of clashes between Hamas and Fatah.
Street battles turned the densely populated seaside city into a war zone, putting terrified civilians increasingly at risk. Stray bullets damaged apartment buildings, gunmen fired at a group of protesters and people cowered in their homes as masked gunmen roamed empty streets.
Hamas also targeted Israel, firing barrages of homemade rockets for a second day, seriously wounding one person and knocking out power in the southern Israeli town of Sderot, officials said. Israel staged two airstrikes on Hamas targets, reportedly killing five people.
Hamas fighters appeared to be trying to draw Israel into the conflict in hopes of uniting Palestinians against a common foe. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's Security Cabinet decided against large-scale reprisal, however, although it authorized the army to step up attacks on Hamas rocket squads.
"Israel cannot continue to restrain itself when its citizens are being hit and therefore decided on a severe and serious response," Olmert's office said.
The Palestinian infighting threatened to destroy the fragile unity government established in March by Hamas and Fatah and pushed the rivals ever closer to all-out civil war.
A main goal of the alliance was to halt months of factional violence, but the unity deal never addressed a key area of dispute -- control over Palestinian security forces.
Officers deployed
The latest round of violence erupted this week after President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah deployed thousands of police officers to halt a crime wave in Gaza without first consulting with Hamas. Forty-five people have died, most of them Fatah men, and dozens have been wounded.
During the week, the attacks have grown increasingly brazen. Hamas gunmen fatally shot six bodyguards early Wednesday during an assassination attempt on a top Fatah security man. The commander, Rashid Abu Shbak, wasn't home during the assault and his family escaped harm.
In the attack on Ali's apartment, Hamas forces set fire to the 11-story building, which is inhabited by several Fatah officials. Ali's family managed to flee the building. But many residents remained trapped inside, screaming out their windows for help.
Eventually, the fire was put out and the gunmen withdrew, security officials said. Medical officials said nine people were treated for smoke inhalation.
Throughout the day, the streets of central Gaza City echoed with the rattle of gunfire and were empty except for gunmen in black ski masks. Frightened residents huddled in darkened homes after electricity to some neighborhoods was cut off by a downed power line. Buildings were pocked with bullet holes and windows were shattered by explosions.
At nightfall, Hamas announced it would observe a unilateral cease-fire.
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