PALESTINIAN CIVIL WAR UPDATE

Fatah Man Pushed Off Roof in Gaza - Avi Issacharoff (Ha'aretz)
Mohammed Sweirki, 25, who served in the Fatah-linked Presidential Guard, was kidnapped Sunday by Hamas gunmen and pushed off the roof of a 15-story building to his death in Gaza City. In Rafah, hundreds of rival gunmen took up positions on street corners and rooftops, pounding each other's positions with rocket-propelled grenades and machineguns. Of the more than 39 Palestinians wounded in the fighting, at least nine were in critical condition, hospital officials said.

Gunmen Attack Palestinian Prime Minister's House (FoxNews)
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Gunmen fired at the house of Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas early Monday and warring factions threw militants to their deaths from high-rise buildings, in a dangerous escalation of infighting in Gaza.

There were no reports of casualties in the attack on Haniyeh's house in the Shati refugee camp next to Gaza City. His office wouldn't say whether he was inside when the house and surrounding area came under heavy fire for about 15 minutes from a nearby high-rise building. But his wife, children and grandchildren were, his family said.

It was the first time in a month of fighting between Hamas and the rival Fatah group that Haniyeh was an apparent target.

Before daybreak Monday the sides reached an agreement to stop the clashes, and Fatah-linked security forces began pulling back from points of friction around the Gaza Strip. But several such cease-fires in recent weeks have been short-lived. Shooting could still be heard at several points around Gaza City as residents awoke Monday.

The fighting took a grisly turn on Sunday, when Hamas militants kidnapped a member of the elite presidential guard of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, took him to the roof of a 15-story apartment building and threw him to his death.

See also Six Killed in Factional Gun Battles in Gaza - Nidal al-Mughrabi (Reuters)
Masked gunmen from rival Palestinian factions streamed onto the streets to fight their most intense battles in weeks on Sunday in Gaza, with the weekend toll rising to six dead and 59 wounded.