Hamas militants kill Palestinian security commander

The Palestinian president and prime minister, locked in a violent power struggle, today agreed to pull back their forces, after a senior security commander and four of his bodyguards were killed in one of the bloodiest battles in weeks of internal fighting.

Yesterday’s violence in Gaza – along with an Israeli raid in the West Bank that killed four Palestinian civilians – prompted prime minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas and president Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah to hold late-night talks, despite the angry accusations the two have traded in recent weeks.