Israel lets Fatah boost troops

JERUSALEM -- Israel this week allowed the Palestinian party Fatah to bring into the Gaza Strip as many as 500 fresh troops trained under a US-coordinated program to counter Hamas, the Islamic movement that won Palestinian parliamentary elections last year. Fighting between Hamas and Fatah has left about 45 Palestinians dead since Sunday.

The forces belong to units loyal to the elected Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, a moderate Fatah leader whom the Bush administration and Israel have sought to strengthen militarily and politically. A spokeswoman for the European Union Border Assistance Mission at Rafah, where the fighters crossed into Gaza from Egypt, said their entry Tuesday was approved by Israel.

The troops' deployment illustrates the increasingly partisan role that Israel and the Bush administration are taking in the volatile Palestinian political situation. The effort to fortify the armed opposition to Hamas, which the United States and Israel categorize as a terrorist organization, follows attempts to isolate the Islamic movement internationally and cut off its sources of financial aid.

Israel also carried out a series of airstrikes yesterday against Hamas targets across Gaza, killing at least six gunmen. Additional airstrikes early today killed four people, doctors in Gaza told the Associated Press.

Fatah, the movement formerly led by Yasser Arafat, has recognized Israel, in contrast with Hamas, whose charter calls for the creation of a future Islamic state across territory that now includes the Jewish state. The two Palestinian parties -- one secular, one Islamic -- have been fighting for control of various security services and, by extension, political power and patronage since Hamas won democratic elections in January 2006.

Hamas's militant brand of Islam has given it dominant political standing in impoverished Gaza, where many of its leaders were born or arrived as refugees, while Fatah remains strong in the wealthier and more secular West Bank.

The Bush administration recently approved $40 million to train the Palestinian Presidential Guard, a force of about 4,000 troops under Abbas's direct control. But Israel and the United States, deeply unpopular among Arabs in the region, have been trying to avoid the perception of taking sides in a conflict that this week in Gaza has resembled a nascent civil war.

Many within Fatah are avowed opponents of Israel, and any alliance with the Jewish state against the Islamic movement could damage Fatah's standing among Palestinians.

"We're not the ones giving these forces operational orders. That will be up to Abbas," said Ephraim Sneh, Israel's deputy defense minister, asserting that Hamas's arms smuggling from the Sinai and military training in Iran have given the movement a battlefield advantage. "The idea is to change the balance, which has been in favor of Hamas and against Fatah. With these well-trained forces, it will help right that imbalance."

As Palestinian rocket fire into Israel continued yesterday, the Israeli Air Force conducted strikes across Gaza, from which Israel withdrew in 2005 after a nearly four-decade presence there.

The airstrikes killed at least six Hamas gunmen that Israeli officials said were involved in rocket assaults on Israeli towns near Gaza.

Among those killed was Imad Shabanah, a Hamas military leader who Hamas officials acknowledged had taken part in manufacturing rockets. His car was hit as it traveled through Gaza City.

"All options for our response are open," said Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza. Some Hamas military leaders said specifically that "martyrdom operations," or suicide bombings, could be used in retaliation for the Israeli airstrikes.

Israeli military officials said Palestinian gunmen fired at least 17 rockets yesterday from Gaza, bringing the three-day total to more than 80.

At least seven fell yesterday in the border town of Sderot, wounding several Israelis and damaging a synagogue, a high school, and a building inside an industrial park, military officials said.

One Israeli woman was seriously wounded by rocket fire earlier this week, and dozens more have suffered light to moderate injuries or have been treated for shock.