GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Renewed clashes yesterday between Hamas and Fatah terrorists wounded nine Palestinian Arabs, including five children, raising fears that Palestinian Arab territories could erupt in a much wider conflagration.

Friction between the two sides has been heating up since the Islamic terrorist Hamas ended Fatah’s four-decade control of Palestinian Arab politics with a victory in January parliament elections. The fighting yesterday broke out just hours before international mediators were to meet in New York to discuss whether to ease the financial siege on Hamas over its violent anti-Israel ideology.

The rival factions offered conflicting versions of what set off the pre-dawn violence in downtown Gaza City, just a day after three people were killed in fighting between the two sides.

Fatah said Hamas terrorists opened fire at seven bodyguards protecting a house where a top Fatah activist, Samir Masharawi, was staying. The bodyguards fired back, and Fatah said at least one Hamas terrorist was wounded.

Dozens of Hamas and Fatah terrorists then streamed to the scene, and eight more people were wounded in the sporadic gunbattles that followed, including five children between the ages of 8 and 14 who were on their way to school, Fatah said.

None of the injuries was serious, Palestinian Arab hospital officials said.

Hamas said Mr. Masharawi’s bodyguards had kidnapped three members of Hamas’s military wing earlier in the day and Hamas gunmen gone to free them. Mr. Masharawi denied the accusations, and said Hamas had kidnapped a Fatah member until he intervened to secure the hostage’s release.

Both Fatah and Hamas called for restraint and insisted they wanted to contain the violence.

“We must show self-restraint, end all displays of arms, and employ only dialogue,” Prime Minister Haniyeh of Hamas told a solidarity rally of about 1,500 people outside his Gaza City office.

He said he contacted Fatah and Hamas leaders yesterday to urge them to end the tensions, and planned a meeting between the two sides. Mr. Haniyeh was also due to meet later yesterday with Egyptian security officials to discuss ways to end the violence.

Palestinian Arab leader Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, who was elected separately last year, said he has instructed security forces to restrain those instigating violence.

“Our main goal at this time is … to end the economic siege of the Palestinian people,” Abbas told reporters in the West Bank town of Ramallah.