New Delhi: Israel has launched a massive air strike in Gaza in retaliation to rocket attacks by Palestinian militants. A car carrying one of the Islamist group's top commanders was also destroyed in the powerful response to the Palestinian attacks.
Israeli aircraft destroyed a Hamas security headquarters in Gaza City wounding at least 40 people.
Despite a ceasefire deal brokered by Abbas and Hamas leader-in-exile Khaled Meshaal, three Palestinians were killed in renewed internal fighting on Thursday, raising the death toll since Friday to at least 43.
The Hamas security headquarters was in the heart of Gaza City, where rival Palestinian factions have been battling each other for the past six days.
Meanwhile, Meshaal told Hamas's al-Aqsa Television that the air strike in Gaza City created an ''historic opportunity'' to unite Palestinian factions against Israel.
The Israeli government had earlier threatened a severe response against the rocket attacks, which have persisted despite Israel's pullout from Gaza in 2005.
''We have had enough. Israel will take all defensive measures to protect our citizens from these Hamas rockets,'' Miri Eisin, a spokeswoman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, was quoted by news agency Reuters as saying before the air strike.
Olmert, struggling to stay in office after an official report sharply criticised his handling of last year's war in Lebanon, is under heavy domestic pressure to stop the rockets without getting bogged down in another inconclusive conflict.
At the same time, he knows a wide-ranging Israeli military response in Gaza could have a major influence on the course of Fatah's power struggle with Hamas.
(With inputs from agencies)
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