Gunmen kill Fatah member in Gaza; Hamas man wounded

GAZA, Oct 5 (Reuters) Gunmen killed a Fatah member in the Gaza Strip today and a supporter of rival group Hamas was critically wounded in a separate incident amid an escalating power struggle between the two groups.

Witnesses and medics said armed men opened fire on the Fatah supporter in the southern Gazan town of Rafah. The man later died of his wounds.

In the northern Gazan town of Beit Lahiya gunmen critically wounded a member of Hamas.

No one claimed responsibility in either incident.

Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank have seen spiralling violence between Hamas and Fatah supporters this week, the worst internal bloodshed since the Palestinian Authority was created in 1994.

At least 14 people have died, including a Hamas leader shot by gunmen near his mosque in the West Bank city of Qalqiliya yesterday.

Earlier this week Fatah gunmen threatened to kill leaders of the governing Hamas group, ratcheting up tensions.

REUTERS DKB KN2345