GAZA, Oct 1: Rival Palestinian security forces clashed across the Gaza Strip on Sunday, killing six and injuring 50, in the biggest outbreak of internal fighting in months over unpaid wages and stalled unity government talks.

Violence also erupted in the West Bank city of Ramallah where supporters of President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah started a small fire in the offices of the Hamas-led government.

The flare-up stoked fears of civil war as the rival forces, loyal to the Hamas movement and Mr Abbas, fired at each other from rooftops near parliament building in Gaza City. Smoke from burning tyres wafted overhead as pedestrians ran for cover.

Three Palestinian civilians, including a boy, a security officer and a Hamas militant, were killed in the clashes. A member of Mr Abbas’s presidential guard was shot dead in a firefight about 100 metres from his Gaza home.

Most of those wounded in Gaza City and the town of Khan Younis were civilians, including schoolchildren, medics said. A cameraman for Al-Arabiya television was also among the wounded.

Fatah and Hamas traded blame for the violence, which came as about 50 Israeli tanks pushed into northern Gaza, Palestinian security sources said. The army said the incursion was aimed at preventing militants from firing make-shift rockets into Israel.

Palestinian tensions rose after Interior Minister Saeed Seyam of Hamas ordered his security forces to take to the streets to prevent further violence by striking policemen demanding overdue salaries.

Mr Abbas has been locked in an increasingly bitter power struggle with the government of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh over stalled efforts to form a unity coalition after Hamas trounced Fatah in parliamentary elections in January.

Palestinians hoped a unity government would ease Western sanctions that have prevented the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority from paying full salaries to civil servants for more than six months.

But the talks broke down after Mr Abbas accused Hamas of reneging on a commitment to accept past peace deals with Israel.—-Reuters #