Four Palestinians dead in Gaza clan clash

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA (Reuters) - Four Palestinians were killed in clashes between rival clans in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, hospital officials said, in the most intense violence since a coalition deal was reached this month between Fatah and Hamas.

A Palestinian, who belonged to the Islamist Hamas movement, was shot and killed by gunmen from a rival clan as part of a family feud in the early hours of Saturday. Hamas said the man killed was a local commander of its armed wing.

The killing triggered a clash in which a member of the other clan and a female relative, both Fatah supporters, died.

A bystander was also killed in the fighting, which wounded 18 other people nearby. Both families said the fighting was a domestic dispute and not caused by political rivalries.

Security forces were not involved in the fighting which took place in the southern town of Khan Younis, residents said.

Earlier this month Fatah and Hamas agreed in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, to forge a Palestinian national unity government.

The Hamas cabinet condemned the violence and said security forces would chase the "aggressors" and bring them to justice.

"The Palestinian government condemns the attempt of some parties to violate the Mecca agreement and to return the region to the cycle of violence, bloodshed and tensions," cabinet spokesman Ghazi Hamad said in a statement.

"The Palestinian government continues to be committed to the Mecca agreement and to the restoration of calm and stability."

Palestinians hope the coalition deal, which ended weeks of fighting between Hamas and Fatah in which more than 90 people died, can avert a Palestinian civil war.

In separate violence in the West Bank, hospital officials said Israeli troops wounded with rubber bullets three stone-throwing Palestinian youths in the town of Nablus.

They said Israeli troops came to pick up colleagues manning an observation position in Nablus when youths began to throw stones. The soldiers came under fire from Palestinian gunmen.

The Israeli military said its forces had responded with "riot dispersal" means after coming under fire from gunmen during a riot in which concrete blocks were also hurled at them.

(Additional reporting by Atef Sa'ad in Nablus)