GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - Hamas and Fatah gunmen fought in Gaza City's beachfront neighborhoods and around security compounds Saturday, ignoring renewed truce appeals and Arab mediation efforts. One man was killed, raising the death toll from three days of fighting to 26.Bursts of gunfire alternated with periods of calm, and in areas of Gaza City not affected by the fighting, people tried to go about their lives. Boys played soccer in the streets, horse-drawn carts maneuvered through alleys and shoppers stocked up on supplies for the next round of battle.
Nasser Mushtaha, who owns a high-rise near President Mahmoud Abbas' compound, said members of Abbas' Presidential Guard were posted on his roof and at the entrance to the building. He said he received phone calls from Hamas members, who warned they would blow up the building unless the troops left. But some of the guardsmen refused. Mushtaha complained about his building being used as an outpost. "Who will protect us? What is our fault? We are neither Fatah nor Hamas," he said, adding that dozens of windows had already been shattered by bullets.