GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip: Seven Palestinians were killed in factional fighting Monday, including three shot dead in a gun battle between Hamas and Fatah supporters in a northern Gaza hospital, medics and hospital officials said.

The incident began when a Hamas supporter was killed in a firefight near Beit Hanoun Hospital, witnesses said. The fighting continued and moved into the hospital, where three people were killed and 10 wounded.

The dead were identified as a father and two sons from the al-Masri clan, which has ties to the Fatah movement of President Mahmoud Abbas. Mohammed Odeh, a volunteer for the Red Crescent rescue service, asid one of the dead had been shot at close range.

Also Monday, fighting erupted at Gaza City's Shifa Hospital between Hamas gunmen and the powerful Bakr clan, which is affiliated with Fatah. Bakr gunmen fired mortars and rocket-propelled grenades at the hospital, Gaza's largest, drawing Hamas fire from inside the building, hospital officials said.

A MEMBER of the Palestinian Fatah movement was thrown off the roof of an 18-storey building today amid renewed clashes between rival factions across Gaza, as Israel vowed to continue its strikes.

Mohammed Suwerki was kidnapped near the seafront in Gaza moments before he was flung to his death from the roof of a building by fighters loyal to the Islamist Hamas movement, which has been locked for months in a power struggle with President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement...

...The attacks came after two militants - first one from Fatah and later a Hamas member - were dragged onto the roofs of Gaza high-rises and thrown to their deaths...