Gunmen shot dead a Hamas commander in the Gaza Strip yesterday and the Islamist group blamed a Fatah-dominated security service for the first killing in the territory since a ceasefire went into effect overnight.

Hospital officials in the southern town of Khan Younis said Hussein Shabasi was shot in the head.

A spokesman for Hamas' armed wing said he was killed by the Preventive Security Service, most of whose members belong to President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction. The security service denied any connection with his death.

The ceasefire had appeared to be holding, bringing people out of their homes for the first time in five days as shops reopened and traffic again clogged Gaza's narrow streets.

The truce took effect after Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas met an aide to Abbas on Monday in a bid to stem a surge of fighting in which at least 30 Palestinians were killed.

The bloodshed has derailed unity government talks between Hamas and Fatah and prompted some Gazan families to flee their homes. Previous ceasefires, including one last month, have been short-lived.

A day after a suicide bomber from Gaza killed three people in Israel's Red Sea resort of Eilat, Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz vowed to take action but gave no hint as to when, where or against whom the military would strike.

"The initiative will be ours and we have no intention of relaying what we plan to do," Peretz said in broadcast remarks during a visit to the border with Egypt, near Eilat.

With the Quartet of Middle East peace mediators due to meet in Washington on Friday, Israel could be wary of taking military action that might jeopardise a diplomatic drive promoted by its main ally, the United States.

Source: China Daily/Agencies