Palestinian clans clash, 4 dead

Palestinian clans clash, 4 dead

Hospital officials said a Palestinian, who belonged to the Islamist Hamas movement, was shot and killed by gunmen from a rival clan amid 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 an internal dispute and was not motivated by political rivalries.

Security forces were not involved in the fighting, which took place in the southern Gaza 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 "will assume its duties in chasing 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," the 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 moderately wounded three stone throwing Palestinian youths in the town of Nablus using rubber bullets.

They said Israeli troops came to pick up an Israeli force which was manning an observation position in Nablus when youths began to throw stones. The soldiers came under fire from Palestinian gunmen. The Israeli military said it was checking the report.