MEANWHILE, IN THE...

"Civil war" is an apt description for what is now taking place in the Gaza Strip. For a number of days now, in the northern Gaza Strip but also in other places, battles have been waged between Hamas and Fatah civilians. However, on Thursday a new record was broken in the Gaza Strip: Hamas gunmen surrounded the home of a senior Fatah man in the Jabalya refugee camp, and assaulted the home of Colonel Mohammed Gharib, leader of the Preventive Security in the northern Gaza Strip. Using automatic weapons, missiles and grenade launchers, the Hamas attackers killed everyone in the house. Hamas gunmen also raided the home of Sufian Abu Zeida, a senior Fatah official and former minister for prisoner affairs, but he and his family were not at home.... During a short hiatus in the fighting earlier in the week, Haaretz interviewed a member of Fatah and asked him to explain the calm. "The Israelis have no need to worry," he said sadly, "We are just at the start of the war."

--Garance Franke-Ruta