A third day of clashes between Hamas and Fatah has brought Palestinians closer to civil war than at any time since Hamas came to power in January last year.
 
Palestinian civilians have sought refuge from violence that has claimed the lives of 27 people in 48 hours and a wave of kidnappings that has thrown the territories into turmoil.
 
The violence continued late on Sunday, with the Reuters news agency reporting the killing of a member of a Hamas-led police force at a Gaza hospital.
 
A Hamas supporter was also shot dead in a drive-by shooting in southern Gaza, the Associated Press news agency reported.
 

Both Hamas and Fatah, however, have accepted an invitation from King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia for peace talks to be held at Mecca's Grand Mosque.
 
The Saudi Press Agency quoted Abdullah as saying: "I invite them all ... to discuss disputes in a neutral [environment] without intervention from any other side."
 
Kidnappings
 
Residents said some families in Gaza were leaving their homes near the worst of the fighting.
 
Others were keeping children inside and staying away from windows, fearing sniper fire.
 
Nour Odeh, Al Jazeera's Gaza correspondent, says: "At the moment, the situation is very tense on the streets of Gaza and some streets have been completely closed off to civilians."
The violence has derailed coalition talks between the two factions and brought much of Gaza to a standstill.
 
Disturbances also spread to the West Bank city of Nablus, where Fatah gunmen kidnapped 11 Hamas members, security sources said.
 
Fatah supporters later set ablaze the Nablus offices of the Hamas-controlled education ministry and kidnapped five employees, Ahmed Doleh, the director of the ministry, said.
 
Armed men from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades seized a local Hamas leader in front of local news crews in Nablus.
 
As the clashes intensified, the prime minister, Ismael Haniyeh of Hamas, issued a plea urging an end to the conflict.
 
"We call on all the Palestinian people to protect national unity, to make the language of dialogue and reason prevail, to withdraw weapons from the streets, and put an end to the tensions,"  he said.
 
"Irrational and unacceptable"
 
An explosion early on Sunday morning rocked the Gaza City home of a bodyguard to Mohammed Dahlan, a local Fatah commander. No casualties were reported.
 
Anti-tank rockets and mortar shells were also fired at Fatah's police headquarters.
 
Throughout Gaza, warring factions set up road blocks and continued to trade machine-gun fire.
The rival groups blame each other for provoking the violence.
 
Hamas has called for Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president en route to the African Union summit in Ethiopia, to return home immediately to help put an end to the bloodshed.
 
The Arab League condemned the fighting as "irrational and unacceptable" and Alvaro de Soto, the UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, called on all parties "to cease clashes".
 
Violence erupted after Abbas called last month for early presidential and parliamentary elections after inconclusive talks with Hamas on forming a unity government.
 
Hamas parliamentarians said on Sunday Abbas' calls for early elections "amount to a coup against the results of democracy".
 
They said in a statement: "National dialogue cannot continue with leaders of the coup or those who support them."

Photo caption

 Gunmem seize Fayyad Al-Arba