JERUSALEM, May 27: Israel and Hamas traded threats on Sunday as an Israeli civilian died in a second deadly rocket strike from Gaza within a week and the Jewish state pursued its relentless pounding of militant targets.

Thirteen civilians and 33 militants have been killed by Israeli raids in the coastal strip in the past 12 days, and on Sunday Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told a weekly cabinet meeting: “No one involved in terror has immunity.” The warnings came as rival Palestinian factions began meeting Egyptian mediators in Cairo to try to cement a truce that halted internecine bloodshed and to discuss the possibility of restoring a ceasefire with Israel.

Olmert told his ministers that he would not allow the vagaries of Palestinian domestic politics to determine his government's policy.

“We need to prepare for a long confrontation, which does not depend on agreements” between rival Palestinian factions, he said.

The armed wing of Hamas, the senior partner in the Palestinian unity government, in turn warned that the Jewish state would pay “a heavy price” if it continued its operations in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

“The campaign of killing and assassinations will not push us to surrender, it will make us stronger,” said Abu Obaida, a spokesman for Hamas's armed wing.

“The occupation is... powerless to stop our rockets.” Israel has pounded Hamas targets in Gaza with 60 air strikes over the past 12 days in response to an increase in rocket fire from the territory.

The latest targeted a position in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on Sunday evening, a military spokesman said. Palestinian sources said there were no casualties in the raid against a position of the paramilitary Executive Force.

Olmert spoke as an Israeli man died from wounds sustained when a rocket fired by Hamas's armed wing smashed into a car he was driving in the southern town of Sderot.

It was the second deadly rocket strike in the town in less than a week despite the resumption of Israeli air strikes on Hamas in Gaza.

Gaza militants have fired more than 230 rockets into the Jewish state since May 15, when the launches increased amid fierce factional clashes in the territory. The barrage has killed two civilians, wounded 20 and sent hundreds fleeing.

The Israeli army carried out two fresh raids against Hamas targets in Gaza overnight, with no casualties reported, a day after air strikes killed five Hamas militants. The army has also detained two Hamas ministers and 32 other senior Hamas officials.

The United States voiced its concern to Israel over the arrests, while France condemned them, saying “they could jeopardise the future of the national unity government and the possibility of renewed negotiations between the parties.” Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas last week called for a halt to what he called the “futile” rocket strikes and for a comprehensive truce with Israel covering both Gaza and the occupied West Bank, after a six-month Gaza ceasefire collapsed with increased rocket strikes and Israeli air raids.

But both Hamas and Israel want the other side to stop shooting first.

“The truce must be reciprocal and implemented simultaneously in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank,” Hamas spokesman Ayman Taha told reporters after a meeting between the factions in Gaza City on Sunday evening.

“The Israelis are continuing their operations and Ehud Olmert is refusing any truce. It's not the resistance that is to blame, it's the occupation.” Egypt, which has been seeking to broker a new agreement between the Palestinian factions, began holding separate meetings with the rival sides in Cairo.

Egyptian mediator General Borhan Hamad met a delegation from the secular Fatah faction of Abbas ahead of talks with Hamas and other factions.—AFP