Israel’s air force destroyed a Hamas security headquarters in Gaza City on Thursday, killing at least six people and wounding more than 20, in a powerful response to rocket attacks by Palestinian militants.Smoke rose from what remained of the building in the heart of the city, where rival factions have been battling each other for the past six days in violence that has brought Palestinians to the verge of all-out civil war. Gaza residents and Hamas radio identified the target as a building used by the Islamist group’s Executive Force, which is challenging Fatah for security control of the territory. Earlier, at least one Palestinian was killed in a clash between Hamas and Fatah gunmen in the Gaza Strip, despite a ceasefire deal agreed late on Wednesday. So far more than 43 people have been killed, including 14 on Wednesday alone.When their new political power-sharing coalition was unveiled in March, leaders of Fatah and Hamas pledged to put an end to their fighting. But the violence shredding the Gaza Strip this week has made a mockery of the agreement. Members of the two factions are again battling for supremacy on the streets. The events this week have made increasingly clear that, from the outset, the “unity” effort was almost set up to fail, with neither of the two leading parties willing to give much ground where it counted most. That show of force has been seen by many as the proximate cause of this new round of fighting, which ended weeks of relative, uneasy calm.
