By DPA
Gaza City : Egyptian mediators urged rival Palestinian factions to discuss a new truce Tuesday, after at least 16 people were killed and dozens wounded overnight and the previous day in the worst Hamas-Fatah clashes in Gaza since such fighting peaked in mid-May.
In fresh fighting Tuesday morning, gunmen fired a mortar shell at the Gaza City house of Prime Minister Ismail Haniya of Hamas.
The shell hit the upper floor, causing damage but no injuries, witnesses said. Haniya was believed not to have been at home at the time. On Monday, the premier had halted a meeting of his cabinet due to exchanges of fire taking place near his Gaza City office.
Four mortar shells fell near the presidential compound of Mahmoud Abbas, as Hamas gunmen also fired at the headquarters of the Preventive Security Force, dominated by his coalition Fatah party.
Some eight buildings were on fire in a focal point of the fighting in the north-eastern part of the city, witnesses said.
A Hamas militant, meanwhile, was shot dead in the latest killing in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis Tuesday morning, Voice of Palestine Radio reported.
The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Fatah's military wing, threatened to spread the infighting to the West Bank, if attacks by Hamas on Fatah targets did not stop by 11 am (0800 GMT) Tuesday.
"I call on the leaders of the two fighting groups to come to my office tomorrow, Tuesday, at 1 pm (1000 GMT)," General Burhan Hamad, who heads a high-ranking Egyptian security delegation that has been mediating between the two groups, told reporters in Gaza City. "We must agree to totally end this shameful fighting."
Monday's deaths included Fatah's northern Gaza secretary general, Jamal Abu al-Jidian, whose house came under attack by dozens of Hamas militants. He was injured and taken to hospital but was riddled with bullets and killed on the way there.
Many of his relatives were taken away in the attack, including his 35-year-old brother, who was later shot dead by his Hamas captors after a revenge shooting by Fatah.
Later at night, Hamas militants attacked and fired a rocket- propelled grenade at the western Gaza City home of Hassan Irbayea', an officer in the Fatah-dominated Preventive Security force.
Witnesses said Irbayea' was not at home, but his family was. His 75-year-old mother and 15-year-old daughter were killed and a third person critically wounded, hospital officials said.