Palestinian Violence Kills 5

Five Palestinians were killed in clashes in the Gaza Strip Tuesday, but at the hands of fellow Palestinians.

CBS News Correspondent Robert Berger reports Palestinian police are locked in a blood feud with the Islamic militant group Hamas. It began Monday when Hamas gunmen killed a colonel who headed the Palestinian riot police. That was revenge for the killing of Hamas supporters in riots a year ago. When police tried to arrest suspects in connection with the latest shooting, gun battles erupted with Hamas militants, leaving four Hamas members dead.

In the West Bank Tuesday, four Israeli motorists were wounded, two of them seriously, in a shooting attack near the West Bank town of Hebron. Gunmen fired on the car as it reached a road junction.

Undeterred by U.S. criticism, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Tuesday praised a deadly Israeli military strike in the Gaza Strip as a success and vowed there would be more such operations.

Berger reports Sharon described the attack as "difficult and complicated."

Israel said Monday's raid in Gaza, which left 14 Palestinians dead and more than 100 wounded in the town of Khan Younis, was meant to put members of the Islamic militant group Hamas on notice that they could no longer feel safe in the crowded neighborhoods of Gaza.

The Palestinians said all the dead and nearly all the wounded were civilians, while Sharon and the Israeli military said most of the dead were armed men killed in battle.

The U.S. State Department, while reaffirming Israel's right to self-defense, said it was "deeply troubled" by raids on Palestinian areas that killed civilians. The operation was also criticized by Russia, the United Nations and the European Union - which along with the United States, make up the quartet of Mideast mediators.

Sharon expressed sorrow at the civilian deaths, but brushed off the international condemnation.

"There is a need to be certain that terrorist organizations will not have the freedom to carry out intentional murder," Sharon said after a meeting with Israeli President Moshe Katsav.

"The operation was a successful operation," Sharon added. "This operation was complicated, it was a difficult operation ... There will be more operations in Gaza."

Meanwhile, Sharon is scaling back his visit to the United States next week due to the tense security situation in the Middle East, but will still meet President Bush.

Sharon told reporters Tuesday that he is cutting out a planned stopover in New York, where he was supposed to meet Jewish leaders. Sharon's meeting with Mr. Bush at the White House, set for Oct. 16, will go ahead as planned.

The Sharon-Bush meeting will be the seventh between the two since they both came into office last year.

They are expected to discuss the prospect of a U.S. strike against Iraq and the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. President Bush has strongly backed Israel, though his administration has criticized some Israeli military actions, including Monday's operation in the Gaza Strip that left 14 Palestinians dead and more than 100 wounded. Most of the dead and wounded were civilians, Palestinians said.

The Israeli commander of Monday's raid, Brig. Gen. Israel Ziv, acknowledged that none of those killed were wanted by Israel. He said the main objective was to shake up the group which has carried out dozens of bombing attacks in Israel.

"Hamas is under a lot of stress lately because of our operations," Ziv said. "The main goal (of the Khan Younis operation) was to ... interfere with their self-confidence."

Both Hamas and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction have threatened to avenge those killed Monday. "Everyone should know that as our people were not safe in Khan Younis, so Israelis will not be safe in Tel Aviv," said Abdel Aziz Rantisi, a Hamas leader. "We will strike everywhere."

With Israel threatening more raids, Hamas was also embroiled in a blood feud with the Palestinian police that left five people dead Monday — a Palestinian police colonel and four Hamas supporters.

In the funeral for two of the Hamas supporters Tuesday, dozens among the 1,500 mourners hurled stones and bottles at a police station in Gaza City. Officers posted on the roof fired in the air.

The colonel, who headed the Palestinian riot police, was kidnapped and shot dead Monday by about 20 Hamas gunmen. The main suspect is Emad Akel, a Hamas activist from the Nusseirat refugee camp, whose brother Raed, was killed a year ago, along with two other students, by Palestinian riot police dispersing protests at a Gaza City campus.

Later Monday, a battle erupted between Hamas gunmen and police trying to arrest two suspects in Gaza City. Two Hamas supporters were killed and 10 bystanders wounded in the fighting. Police eventually withdrew and the suspects were whisked away by Hamas gunmen.

A few hours later, Emad Akel demonstratively set up a mourning tent for his brother — something the family had sworn it would only do once revenge had been taken. The tent was erected on a main road near the Nusseirat refugee camp.

Police arrived to disperse the crowd at the tent, and another gun battle ensued. Two more Hamas supporters were killed and 18 people were wounded, including two who were in critical condition Tuesday.

On Tuesday, Akel's mother, Aisheh, confirmed that her son Emad killed the colonel. "If we had not killed him (the officer), the other families (of the other slain students) would have done so," she told The Associated Press.

Hamas leaders portrayed the feud as a personal matter of several activists, but the clashes threatened to spiral into a full-blown confrontation between Hamas and the Palestinian security services.

Arafat in the past has resisted calls by Israel and the United States to crack down on Hamas militants in order to prevent attacks on Israelis. However, security forces have taken tough measures in the past when they felt their authority was challenged by the militants.

In the West Bank town of Jenin Tuesday, about 200 school children threw stones at two Israeli tanks enforcing a curfew in the West Bank town of Jenin. Soldiers opened fire, wounding two adults and two teen-agers, including a 17-year-old boy who was in serious condition with a bullet in the chest, doctors said.