Though the ceasefire between Hamas and Fatah gunmen holds on, Israel continued airstrikes against Hamas activists and facilities allegedly connected with the manufacture of the crude Qassam rockets used to strike southern Israeli towns.

Militants abandoned rooftops and check points and more than 30 hostages were exchanged while monitors toured flashpoints to make certain the ceasefire was being observed.

The factional ceasefire was declared on Saturday after at least 50 Palestinians had died and several hundreds had been wounded in seven days of clashes. Another 10 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli air attacks since last Wednesday.

Israel announced after its regular weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday that it would continue  responding to rocket strikes until they ceased.

Egypt mediated the ceasefire while Saudi Arabia, which brokered the mid-February national unity government, warned the two parties to end their fighting and halt rocket attacks on Israel. The Saudis are particularly angry over intra-Palestinian fighting because they want to promote serious international consideration of the Arab League peace plan which calls for full Israeli withdrawal from all Arab territory occupied in 1967 in exchange for full Arab normalisation of relations with Israel.

The Saudis enjoy considerable leverage over both Fatah and Hamas because the government and Saudi charitable institutions provide millions of dollars in finance to both parties.

Hamas and Fatah gunmen were also under pressure to end hostilities from ordinary citizens in both Gaza and the West Bank who are incensed over the power struggle which is being fed by Israel and the US.
The West Bank, which has experienced earlier interfactional violence, has remained calm during the Gaza clashes and leaders based in the city of Nablus of Hamas, Fatah, Islamic Jihad and leftist Popular Front militias have called for an immediate ceasefire.