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GAZA - A Palestinian child was killed by gunfire in Gaza today, medical officials said, as Fatah and Hamas fighters clashed in a second straight day of factional violence since the formation of a unity government.
Aiming to quell the tensions, Fatah's President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas agreed to step up contacts between both sides, a Haniyeh aide said.
Medical officials said the two-year-old boy was killed and a female relative was wounded by gunfire as Hamas and Fatah gunmen clashed in northern Gaza. There was no immediate comment from either side on the killing.
A 45-year-old man was killed in a separate shooting incident. It was not immediately clear whether it was factional or clan related.
Palestinians hoped a unity government formed on Sunday between Hamas Islamists and Abbas's secular Fatah faction would end the fighting. But clashes broke out yesterday and spread after a series of abductions.
The most high profile abductee was local Hamas leader Hamdan Assufi, who disappeared yesterday. Hamas said it would take "measures" to free the man if Fatah refused to release him. Fatah has not said whether it is holding him.
In an interview with Reuters, Haniyeh called the upsurge in violence "unfortunate".
An aide to Haniyeh said the prime minister had spoken to Abbas on the telephone about the violence.
Haniyeh dispatched the new interior minister, Hani al-Qawasmi, to meet Hamas and Fatah leaders in Gaza to "work intensively to put an end to the clashes immediately", the aide said.
BLAME
In further violence today, the house of a Hamas supporter in the northern Gaza Strip was set ablaze.
Hamas blamed Fatah and sent members of its Executive Force to the scene, where a gunbattle erupted. One Fatah activist was injured, local residents and hospital officials said.
In an apparent response, the furniture shop of a Fatah supporter was set on fire.
Relatives of the 45-year-old Gazan who was killed also blamed members of Hamas's Executive Force for the shooting.
In response, members of the dead man's clan, one of Gaza's biggest and well-armed, torched two Executive Force vehicles and abducted six Executive Force members.
Islam Shahwan, a spokesman for the Executive Force, denied the force's involvement in the killing of the man and said the death was a result of a feud between two rival families.
In a separate incident in southern Gaza, an officer in a Fatah-dominated security force was shot by unknown gunmen. Hospital officials said he was in moderate condition.
Earlier, unknown gunmen hijacked a UN vehicle. A UN convoy was attacked last week.
In the occupied West Bank, Israeli soldiers clashed with members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, which is linked to Fatah, near the city of Hebron. One of the militants was seriously injured and at least three were captured, Palestinian security sources said.
- REUTERS
