JERUSALEM - Clashes between the Palestinian factions, Hamas and Fatah escalated Friday. Two senior Fatah officials were gunned down early in the day bringing to ten - the number of people killed since a ceasefire collapsed on Thursday. There was also violence in the West Bank where Israeli forces killed two armed Palestinians.

Gun battles that began on Thursday continued Friday. Among the dead are two senior intelligence officials who belonged to Fatah. The two were caught up in an escalating wave of violence that has engulfed the Gaza Strip over the past 24 hours. Early on Friday, Hamas militants attacked the pro-Fatah Voice of Labor radio station - destroying the facility. Hamas gunmen also attacked the Gaza offices of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas who heads Fatah. The attacks followed an overnight Fatah assault on Gaza’s Islamic University - a Hamas stronghold. There were more clashes at the university on Friday.

Egyptian officials who helped broker a truce that began on Tuesday say Hamas broke the ceasefire Thursday afternoon by attacking a convoy of trucks belonging to Fatah. At an impromptu news conference, masked Hamas gunmen said the convoy was carrying arms for Fatah.

The Hamas gunmen blamed Fatah for breaking the truce by bringing in large quantities of arms to Gaza. Fatah officials strongly denied the convoy was carrying anything other than non-lethal equipment.

The U.S. government says it will supply $86 million in non-lethal aid to President Abbas. According to reports in Israeli newspapers, Israel has allowed Egypt and Jordan to supply Mr. Abbas with weaponry. The U.S., Israel and some Palestinian officials have accused Iran of supplying Hamas with money and weaponry.

Meanwhile Israeli forces on Friday killed two members of President Abbas’ Preventive Security Force in the West Bank town of Bitounia.

The escalating violence comes as members of the so-called Middle East Peace Quartet meet in Washington on Friday. The quartet - made up of the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations, is expected to endorse a planned meeting later this month between President Abbas, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Source:  VOA News