Gaza City, Gaza Strip ? Hamas and Fatah gunmen fought in Gaza City’s beachfront neighborhoods and around security compounds Saturday, ignoring renewed truce appeals and Arab mediation efforts. One man was killed, raising the death toll from three days of fighting to 26.

Bursts of gunfire alternated with periods of calm, and in areas of Gaza City not affected by the fighting, people tried to go about their lives. Boys played soccer in the streets, horse-drawn carts maneuvered through alleys and shoppers stocked up on supplies for the next round of battle.

Nasser Mushtaha, who owns a high-rise near President Mahmoud Abbas’ compound, said members of Abbas’ Presidential Guard were posted on his roof and at the entrance to the building. He said he received phone calls from Hamas members, who warned they would blow up the building unless the troops left. But some of the guardsmen refused.

Mushtaha complained about his building being used as an outpost.

“Who will protect us? What is our fault? We are neither Fatah nor Hamas,” he said, adding that dozens of windows had already been shattered by bullets.

In the Sheik Radwan neighborhood, Ali Ustaz used a lull to buy a battery-powered radio so he could follow developments despite frequent power cuts.

“There is no hope for a solution,” Ustaz said, referring to an elusive power-sharing deal between Abbas, the Fatah leader, and the Islamic militant Hamas, the two factions grappling for control of the Palestinian government.

Palestinians, reflected in a mirror, are seen participating Saturday in a demonstration against the internal fighting between Fatah and Hamas and in support of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, outside his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Abbas and Hamas’ supreme leader, Khaled Mashaal, are to meet Tuesday in the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, for a reconciliation hosted by Saudi King Abdullah. The highest-profile mediation effort in several weeks of fighting is increasing pressure on both sides to end their power struggle and form a coalition government.

In Cairo, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said the stalled Mideast peace process depended on resolving the conflict between rival Palestinian factions as well as the release of the Israeli soldier captured by Hamas-linked militants in June.

Speaking at a joint news conference with visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Mubarak said Egypt was working to “seal the crack” between Hamas and Fatah.

An Abbas aide said the Palestinian president is prepared to stay up to three days in Mecca, accompanied by a large delegation. Abbas’ advisers could continue negotiations after he leaves.