Fatah man killed by Hamas militants

A battle between gunmen from Hamas and Fatah in the Gaza Strip left one Fatah man dead before daybreak Thursday, Palestinian officials said, the first fatality in Palestinian infighting since a truce between the rival factions took hold more than two weeks ago.

Five others were injured in the gunbattle near Rafah, two of them seriously, Palestinian hospital officials said.

The Islamic group Hamas and the more moderate Fatah have been battling for power in the chaotic coastal territory for more than a year in fierce bursts of violence that end in brittle truces, only to erupt again. More than 50 Palestinians died in the last round of fighting, which began in mid-May.

Fatah and Hamas blamed each other for the Rafah battle, which broke out around a house belonging to Fatah supporters. The fighting continued after that incident, with masked Hamas men surrounding four other homes belonging to Fatah officials, a security official in Rafah said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Tit-for-tat kidnappings and attacks on the homes of officials have been common tactics in the internal fighting in Gaza. Before the Rafah fight, Hamas charged Fatah with kidnapping three of its men earlier in the week and torturing one of them, a bodyguard for Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas.

The number of Palestinians killed by internal violence doubled in 2006 from the year before and is still rising, according to report presented Tuesday to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

The number of Palestinians killed by fellow Palestinians rose to 345 last year from 176 the year before, according to the report from the Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizens' Rights.

Through the first five months of 2007, the figure _ which includes both gunmen and civilians _ already had reached 271, said Mamdouh al-Aker, head of the group.

He blamed the increase on rising conflict between the Islamic Hamas and Abbas' more moderate Fatah. The two set up a coalition government in March to try to put a stop to months of street fighting that resulted in heavy casualties. On Tuesday, Abbas warned that internal violence posed a serious threat to his people.

"I told the president that there is no political will to fight chaos," al-Aker said, charging that the 80,000 members of the Palestinian security forces "are incapable of protecting the homeland and its citizens." Some of the security officers have been involved in the infighting.

Among last year's Palestinian victims, 106 died in clan violence and 100 were killed by infighting and faulty weapons use, including 40 children, said Lamis Alami, director of the commission.

The commission, based in Ramallah, was established in 1993 by decree from the late Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat.