19 killed as Gaza clashes rage

Gaza City - Another four Palestinians died on Saturday in clashes between rival factions in Gaza, bringing to 19 the death toll in three days of bitter fighting that has torpedoed talks on forming a unity government.

Rival supporters of the ruling Hamas movement and the Fatah faction loyal to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas have fought running gun battles and fired off volleys of mortars and grenades in the densely populated streets of Gaza City since Thursday night, medics and witnesses said.

The fiercest fighting since the Islamist Hamas won parliamentary elections one year ago has also left around 50 people injured, according to medical officials.

Amid the mounting casualties, the ruling Islamists suspended long-running talks with Fatah on Friday night on forming a national unity government acceptable to Western donors.

Hamas accused the president's party of provoking the latest fighting.

Saturday's flare-up saw Mahmoud Khalil Khatib, 17, who appears to have been an innocent bystander, Ibrahim Al-Kahlut, 25, and Mohammad Khattab, 33, both officers in the national security force, killed in early morning firefights in central Gaza City, medical sources said.

Hamas had earlier launched rocket-propelled grenades at the headquarters of the Fatah-dominated Preventive Security force and lobbed mortars at the home of Rashid Abu Shabak, the Gaza security chief loyal to Abbas.

Grenades late on Friday hit the home of Palestinian foreign minister Mahmud al-Zahar, a Hamas leader.

The streets of Gaza City were deserted on Saturday as storekeepers shuttered up their shops and residents stayed in the relative safety of their homes.

The quiet was punctuated by occasional bursts of machine gun fire.

Among the victims were a two-year-old child who was caught in the crossfire of a firefight in the south Gaza town of Khan Yunis and a 16-year-old boy killed in Jabaliya, according to medics.