Fears Of A Palestinian Civil War Grow

(CBS/AP)  Hamas militiamen and Palestinian police traded heavy fire near Gaza City's parliament building on Monday, killing an aide to the Jordanian ambassador in Gaza and wounding 11 people in the worst internal fighting in recent weeks.

The battle turned downtown Gaza City into a war zone and was the most intense yet in a deepening power struggle, reports CBS News correspondent Robert Berger (audio). Tensions soared last week after Hamas deployed a unit of 3,000 militants to restore law and order. With two rival security forces patrolling the streets, there are growing fears of a Palestinian civil war.

At one point, Hamas gunmen were holed up in two buildings under construction, hurling grenades and firing a rocket-propelled grenade at police. Other militants took up positions behind trees, cars and buildings, turning downtown Gaza into a battle zone.

In other developments:

Ehud Olmert's makes his first visit to Washington as Israel's prime minister this week. He would like endorsement of his ambitious plan to draw his nation's final borders with the Palestinians within two years by pulling tens of thousands of Israeli settlers out of large chunks of the West Bank. But President Bush has been cool to the idea.

Israel is easing economic sanctions that have crippled the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority, reports Berger. Fearing a humanitarian crisis in the West Bank and Gaza, Israel will transfer $11 million worth of medical supplies to the Palestinians." It is the Israeli government policy to help the Palestinian people in any economic and humanitarian way that we could help them," Foreign Minister Tzippe Livni said.

Israel has withheld $55 million in monthly tax payments to the Palestinian Authority since Hamas took power. Now, Israel wants to bypass Hamas and funnel aid directly to the Palestinian people.

Two Israeli fighter jets scrambled Monday to prevent a wayward paraglider from approaching a secret nuclear facility in southern Israel, the army said. The man was questioned by police forces and was not suspected of any criminal intent. Israel is believed to have the world's sixth-largest stockpile of nuclear weapons, including hundreds of warheads.

The man killed in Gaza on Monday was identified as 55-year-old Khaled Radaida, an assistant to the Jordanian ambassador in Gaza. Three bullets hit the windshield of Radaida's vehicle, marked with Jordanian diplomatic license plates.

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