GAZA, 22 March 2007 — A fighter loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah faction was killed and four were wounded yesterday in the first deadly clash between Fatah and Hamas since a unity government was formed four days ago.

Fatah said Hamas’ Executive Force fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the northern Gaza home of a senior Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades commander, killing one of the group’s members.

Four gunmen were wounded in the battle but not the Al-Aqsa commander, Fatah said. A spokesman for Hamas’ armed wing, Abu Ubaida, said Hamas gunmen had only responded to shooting from the Al-Aqsa commander’s house.

The unity deal has eased a Western diplomatic embargo of the Palestinian government but a year-old ban on direct aid remains in place. Brushing aside Israeli appeals to shun the entire government, the European Union and the United Nations dispatched their Middle East envoys for talks with non-Hamas ministers.

EU Middle East envoy Marc Otte met Finance Minister Salam Fayyad in the West Bank city of Ramallah yesterday, a day after talks in Gaza with Foreign Minister Ziad Abu Amr, European and Palestinian officials said.

“The minister of finance has a difficult task before him and I want to offer him encouragement,” UN envoy Alvaro de Soto said as he arrived for separate talks with Fayyad yesterday.

With regard to international financial aid to Palestinians, the Temporary International Mechanism announced yesterday that 36,000 Palestinians will receive a grant of $350 each next Sunday in coordination with the president’s office.

In a related development, villagers of Umm Salamuna and neighboring villages in the south Bethlehem region protested against the bulldozers that are currently razing their homes for the apartheid wall while marking the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

Mohammed Zawahreh, coordinator of the popular committee against Israeli wall and settlements, told Arab News that villagers held a rally and blocked a road in the settlements to protest the wall.

— With input from agencies