GUNFIGHTS between Hamas and Fatah gunmen erupted across the Gaza Strip yesterday, killing four people, wounding several others and destroying a days-old truce.

Three thousand gunmen loyal to the radical Hamas government deployed across the Gaza Strip today, violently breaking up a peaceful teachers’ protest in a southern town, in the Islamic group’s most brazen challenge yet to moderate President Mahmoud Abbas.

Two brothers were killed today when a car blew up today in the central Gaza Strip, Palestinian hospital officials said. Their names were not released.

PALESTINIAN gunmen yesterday shut down central Gaza offices registering voters for a parliamentary election due in July, saying they were protesting at losses by the ruling Fatah Party in last week’s municipal ballot.

Palestinian gunmen broke into Gaza City’s central prison today, exchanged fire with guards and killed three prisoners as part of long-running family feuds, police said.

Israel freed one of the co-founders of the militant Palestinian Hamas today after holding him without trial for the past 14 months.

Hamas threatened revenge today after 14 Palestinians were killed in the deadliest Israeli raid in Gaza in 17 months – part of an upsurge in bloodshed linked to a proposed Israeli withdrawal from the coastal strip.

PALESTINIANS vowed to strike at the heart of Israel yesterday as some 10,000 mourners gathered at the funerals in central Gaza for the victims of a massive Israeli army operation.

Israeli troops raided two Gaza refugee camps early today, sparking gunbattles that killed 14 Palestinians – including an eight-year-old boy.

At least nine Palestinians were killed when fighting erupted as Israeli troops raided two Gaza refugee camps early today.

An Israeli helicopter fired four missiles at a van, killing two members of the militant Hamas group in the Gaza Strip today and wounding two people, witnesses and rescue workers said.

ISRAELI troops raiding a Gaza refugee camp arrested a Hamas founder yesterday, targeting the political leadership of the Islamic militant group for the first time in 29 months of fighting.

Israeli tanks moved into the Nusseirat and Bureij refugee camps in the Gaza Strip early today, witnesses said, killing seven people and destroying two houses.

Israeli forces today shot and killed four Palestinians who were trying to infiltrate a Jewish settlement in the southern Gaza Strip, Army Radio reported.

A UN official has said eight of the 10 Palestinians killed during an Israeli raid on a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip yesterday morning were unarmed civilians.

Israeli troops backed by tanks and helicopter gunships hunted a fugitive militant in a crowded Gaza refugee camp today, setting off chaotic gunbattles that killed 10 Palestinians, including two UN school workers.