Intra-Palestinian death toll climbs

Nearly as many Palestinians have been killed in factional fighting as by Israel since 2006, a study found. According to data released Wednesday by the Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizens’ Rights, street battles between Hamas and Fatah loyalists in the West Bank and Gaza Strip have killed 616 people in the past year and a half. During the same period, Israeli forces killed 659 Palestinians, according to Reuters’ figures. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said this week that factional strife, which was stoked by Hamas’s election victory over Fatah last year, threatens to spill into civil war.