PCSO now under DOH

GAZA CITY (AFP) - Rival Palestinian factions clinched a new ceasefire deal on Saturday to end a week of violence that has left more than 50 dead as Israel continued to pound Gaza, killing three Palestinians.

Gunmen began to abandon rooftop positions and to remove street barricades under the eye of Egyptian mediators and representatives of different factions, accompanied by the military adviser to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, General Abdel Razzaq al-Majaida.

"The agreement has begun to be applied," Majaida said after steps began to be taken around 1330 GMT. "The armed men are coming down from the tower blocks and the barriers are being removed."

It was the fifth such deal since violence erupted on Sunday but the first in which steps were actually taken to implement it.