Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said on Friday he and President Mahmoud Abbas had agreed at emergency talks to keep gunmen from their rival Hamas and Fatah factions off Gaza's streets after six people were killed.

"We have expressed our regret and sorrow for these incidents that do not reflect our struggle," Haniyeh told reporters at Abbas's office at the end of their first meeting in two months.

Haniyeh said he and Abbas agreed to "withdraw all gunmen from the streets and deploy police forces to keep law and order".

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Abbas made no public comment after the session, but a diplomat who attended the talks and declined to be identified confirmed an agreement had been reached.

Similar pacts in the past have been shattered swiftly by violence and Gazans said they feared another eruption of bloodshed later in the day when Thursday's dead are buried.

Gunbattles broke out between forces loyal to Abbas and the Hamas government in northern Gaza on Thursday, killing six people and wounding 18 other people, witnesses said.

In the northern Gaza Strip, a senior Palestinian security officer allied with Fatah was killed when Hamas militants laid siege to his house, engaging in a protracted gun battle with his guards, and then attacked it with grenades and a dozen rockets, Palestinian officials and witnesses said.

The officer, Colonel Mohammed Ghayeb, was on the phone to Palestine TV just moments before his death and appealed for help as his house came under attack. Ghayeb's wife was seriously wounded in the attack, in which Hamas fired assault rifles and rockets at the building.

"They are killers," he said of the Hamas gunmen. "They are targeting the house, children are dying, they are bleeding. For God's sake, send an ambulance, we want an ambulance, somebody move."

The battle outside the house raged for much of the day and killed four of Ghayeb's guards and a Hamas gunman. About three dozen people, including eight children, were also wounded.

Ghayeb was the chief of the Preventive Security Service in northern Gaza, and his killing was expected to trigger revenge attacks by the men under his command.

During the standoff outside Ghayeb's home in Beit Lahiya, dozens of women rushed into the streets in protest, chanting "Spare the bullets, shame, shame."

One resident, Amina Abu Saher, told the local Al Quds radio station that it was difficult for her to see Palestinians fighting each other and said she and the other women were determined to stop the internal fighting.

Haniyeh, a senior Hamas leader, called for calm in the wake of the renewed internal violence. Five people were killed on Wednesday in fighting.

"These clashes must stop, this bloodshed must end. Let all of you love one another, let's resolve differences through dialogue and not with weapons," Haniyeh told reporters after returning from making the Haj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia. "Weapons must only be directed against the Israeli occupation," he added.

The two sides declared the truce in an attempt to end violence that surged after Abbas challenged Hamas by calling for early parliamentary and presidential elections after unity government talks failed.

Also Thursday, unknown gunmen fired on mourners at a funeral for three security officers loyal to Abbas who were among those killed the day before.

Fatah sources and medical officials said two mourners were wounded during the funeral march in central Gaza when gunmen shot at the procession.

A senior Hamas member was also kidnapped by unidentified gunmen in Gaza City, the Islamists said.

Abbas met with leaders of political factions in Gaza on Thursday night. The smaller Islamic Jihad group, which has stayed out of the fighting, was to propose another round of unity talks, this time between Abbas and Hamas' supreme leader, Khaled Meshal, rather than between lower-level envoys.

As the fighting worsened, Haniyeh of Hamas cut short a tour of Arab nations and returned to Gaza on Thursday. His next stop was to have been Jordan, which has offered to host a meeting between Haniyeh and Abbas, in an attempt to defuse the tensions.

Gunmen target 3 senior Hamas men
Assailants targeted three senior Hamas officials in the West Bank, kidnapping one, torching the car of a second and shooting in the air as a third emerged from a mosque, officials said Thursday.

Although there was no immediate claim of responsibility, the attacks came a day after four supporters of the rival Fatah group were killed in factional fighting in the Gaza Strip. Gaza is a Hamas stronghold, while Fatah dominates in the West Bank.

Late Wednesday, gunmen stormed the home of Deputy Health Minister Bashar Karmi in the West Bank town of El Bireh and seized him. Arab satellite TV stations reported that he was released Thursday morning, but the report could not immediately be confirmed independently.

Mohammed Barghouti, a Hamas Cabinet minister, held Fatah responsible. "It is obvious who kidnapped him," Barghouti said. "People are trying to bring the fighting from Gaza to the West Bank."

Karmi's wife, Suhad al-Kubaj, said the gunmen took a laptop, numerous compact discs and 600 shekels from his wallet before abducting him.

"He told me they tied his hands and blindfolded him, and passed him from one car to the next" during his 5 and a half hours in captivity, she said.

"They released him with a warning: What happens in Gaza between Hamas and Fatah can happen here, in the West Bank," she added.

In the town of Jenin, assailants torched the car of Prisoner Affairs Minister Wasfi Kabaha of Hamas, security officials said. It was the third attack on a car owned by Kabaha.

In the village of Jabaa, gunmen fired in the air as the local prayer leader and senior Hamas activist, Nasser Al Awna, emerged from the mosque. He was not harmed.

Smuggling tunnel between Gaza and Egypt collapses
A smuggling tunnel under the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt collapsed Thursday morning, Palestinian security officials said.

There were no immediate reports of casualties or details on who might have been inside at the time of the collapse, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Palestinian smugglers use hundreds of tunnels dug under the border to bring weapons and contraband goods into Gaza from Egypt.

Israel says antitank missiles, tons of explosives and thousands of rifles have reached militants in Gaza through the tunnels. Palestinian militants claim to have smuggled in long-range Katyusha rockets, as well as the materials needed to upgrade their homemade rockets to reach deeper into Israel.

Five killed in intense gunfighting in Gaza
Fighting between Fatah and Hamas gunmen intensified Wednesday in the Gaza Strip and claimed the lives of five Palestinians.

Four of the dead were Fatah militants and one was a civilian caught in the cross-fire.

In the bloodiest incident, three members of Fatah's Preventive Security Service were shot dead in Khan Yunis when their vehicle came under attack by gunmen. Fatah blamed Hamas for the attack.

Earlier, a 22-year-old Palestinian woman, Mona Salha, was killed when a bullet struck her in the head during an exchange of fire between Fatah and Hamas gunmen at the Jabalya refugee camp near Gaza City. A dozen other people were injured in those clashes.
Intense gun battles continued throughout the afternoon in Jabalya, but there were no reports of further casualties.

At noon, gunmen shot and killed a member of Fatah in Beit Lahiya, in the northern Gaza Strip. Eyewitnesses said that the Fatah man was on the roof of a residential building when he was shot.

Hamas said that two of its men were injured, one seriously, while patrolling in a vehicle belonging to a security organization affiliated with the radical Islamic group.

Palestinian security sources said Wednesday that they had urged all foreign nationals to evacuate the Gaza Strip because of threats to kidnap them. However, foreign organizations in Gaza said that they were not aware of such an announcement by the Palestinian security forces.