Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas warned Palestinian militants on Saturday night against violation of the rule of law and calmness that has prevailed in the Palestinian territories since February.

"We are determined to end the anarchy, chaos and security deterioration," Abbas said in a televised speech to the Palestinian people.

A recent flare-up of Palestinian-Israeli violence brought the five-month-old truce close to collapse, and Hamas gunmen clashed with Palestinian security forces in Gaza on Thursday and Friday, raising fears of civil war among Palestinians.

Palestinian security forces have been ordered to prevent by force if necessary the militants from firing rocket at Israeli targets.

Abbas called on all the Palestinian factions to renew commitment to calmness or truce with Israel that was declared in March in Cairo.

He slammed Palestinian militant groups, mainly Hamas and Islamic Jihad, for continuing suicide bombing and rocket and mortar attacks on Israeli towns and Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip despite the truce.

"We were frank when we rejected the bombing attacks," said Abbas, calling firing homemade rockets at Israel and Jewish settlements as "absurd actions" that brought Israeli reprisals which caused severe harm to the Palestinians.

He said that such attacks "would certainly give Israel enough excuses to escape from implementing its commitments" to a ceasefire deal he reached with Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon in February.

"We asserted that we would never be dragged to a civil war," said Abbas, whom Israel has accused of doing little to rein in militants.

He added that the leaders of the Palestinian factions including Hamas had promised to restrain from responding to the Israeli provocations when he met them in Damascus last week.

"But surprisingly one faction is using double policy, on one hand it says it is committed to the calmness and discipline and on the other practicing completely opposite actions that aim at weakening the Palestinian Authority," said Abbas.

He said that Palestinian Authority's patience should not be considered as weakness, adding that those who attacked Palestinian security forces would be punished.

Abbas held Israel completely responsible for the current escalation of violence, but at the same time he said that some groups gave Israel excuse for military strikes.

"From now on we would not allow the phenomena of arms in the streets to terrify the innocent, and we would hunt those who attacked our security and police forces and burned their vehicles, " said Abbas.

In an immediate response to Abbas' speech, Sami Abu Zuhri, Hamas spokesman in Gaza, said that the speech was not a surprise to them, "but it included uncomfortable phrases that are not conducive to the national ties."

Abu Zuhri asserted that his group remained committed to the calmness.

Soon after Abbas delivered his speech, however, masked militants opened fire on Palestinian a police station in northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahya. One police officer was seriously wounded and a bystander suffered a minor injury, witnesses said.

Witnesses said that the militants in a car tried to kidnap the officer, triggering a shootout before the assailants fled the area.

The Palestinian Interior Ministry blamed militants of Hamas' armed wing al-Qassam Brigades for being responsible for the attack.

Meanwhile, an interior ministry statement said that three civilians were injured in southern Gaza city of Khan Younis by Hamas militants' gunfire, after dozens of residents tried to prevent them from firing homemade mortars at a nearby Jewish settlement.

Source: Xinhua