Rooftop positions abandoned as Fatah, Hamas declare truce

A prisoner handover -- a major element of the cease-fire deal -- was delayed for hours while kidnapped men were located. Shortly after midnight yesterday, two buses carrying kidnapped men from both sides pulled up to the Egyptian representative office in Gaza City, where the cease-fire was negotiated.

Colonel Burhan Hamad, head of an Egyptian security team that helped to mediate the cease-fire, said 30 hostages were to be released early today, and the remaining 18 later in the day.

The truce accord was endorsed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas's exiled supreme leader, Khaled Mashaal, who conferred a rare three times by phone in the past few days. Mashaal lives in Syria.

The clashes between Hamas and Fatah gunmen loyal to Abbas have brought the two groups that nominally share power to the brink of civil war. More than 50 Palestinians have been killed in a week of infighting.

The overlapping violence from Israel's attacks on Hamas rocket operations has killed 23 other Palestinians in the past week.

Yesterday, Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz vowed to keep going after Hamas militants who fire rockets at Israel. Rocket squads should be "very afraid," because "it is our intention to act against Hamas," he said in an interview with Israel Radio.

Still, Peretz said time was not ripe for a major Israeli ground offensive in Gaza.

An Israeli airstrike killed three people in a car in Gaza early today, Palestinian medics said. Israel said the car was carrying three Hamas radicals and a load of weapons.

Yesterday, four Palestinians were killed in airstrikes on Hamas targets, while five rockets from Gaza hit the Israeli border area, causing damage, but no injuries.

The air attacks, backed by tank fire, have driven Hamas fighters out of their bases, prompting the militant group to accuse Israel and Fatah of colluding against it.

The Palestinian infighting broke out last Sunday after Abbas stationed thousands of security forces on the streets of lawless Gaza City -- a move Hamas interpreted as a provocation because it wasn't consulted.