GAZA, Oct 2 (Reuters) - Gunmen from rival Palestinian factions killed three people and wounded at least 22 others in the Gaza Strip and West Bank on Monday as Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas appealed for an end to the internal fighting.

A top aide to President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah said Abbas was seriously considering the possibility of forming an emergency government, an administration of technocrats or calling early elections to end the crisis with Hamas.

"Decisions should be taken in a short period of time," the aide, Nabil Amr, said in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

A protest by some 5,000 Abbas supporters in Rafah refugee camp calling for the disbanding of a Hamas-led police force and the resignation of Interior Minister Saeed Seyam, turned violent with exchanges of fire between gunmen and the Hamas-led force.

A policeman and a demonstrator were killed and at least 18 other protesters were wounded in the clashes as shots and loud explosions from hand grenades rang out, witnesses and medics said.

In the town of Khan Younis two Fatah activists were abducted by unidentified gunmen. Fatah blamed Hamas for the kidnappings.

Earlier, gunfire erupted inside the main Shifa hospital between Hamas-led police and the family of a dead fighter loyal to Fatah. At least three people were wounded in the clash.

Abbas supporters stoned the home of a minister in the Hamas-led government, the latest wave of pro-Fatah protests over unpaid wages and stalled unity government talks.

Violence also flared in the occupied West Bank, where Fatah gunmen shot dead a waiter who refused to close his Jericho restaurant to abide by a strike protesting against the recent violence in Gaza, witnesses and medics said.

In Nablus, unidentified gunmen shot and wounded one of Deputy Prime Minister Naser al-Shaer's bodyguards. Shaer, a Hamas leader, was not in the area at the time.

"These actions must stop," Haniyeh said at the start of a cabinet meeting in Gaza. "Calm must be restored."

Nine Palestinians were killed on Sunday in clashes between forces loyal to Hamas and those loyal to Fatah in the worst internal fighting in months.

Independent lawmaker Hassan Khreisheh accused both sides of orchestrating what he called "official lawlessness", and warned: "This is unprecedented even during military coups."

Before dawn on Monday, paramilitary troops controlled by Abbas took up positions at key intersections across Gaza and Hamas pulled its forces back as part of a deal brokered by Egyptian mediators to stem the internal fighting.

Haniyeh said the situation in Gaza had improved. But tensions rose as thousands of pro-Fatah mourners poured into the streets, demanding revenge.

POWER STRUGGLE

Abbas has been locked in an increasingly bitter power struggle with Haniyeh over stalled efforts to form a unity government after Hamas trounced Fatah in elections in January.

Tension has been fuelled by the government's inability to pay full salaries to its workers, many of them from Fatah, as a result of a Western aid embargo designed to push Hamas to recognise Israel, renounce violence and abide by interim deals.

After the violence escalated on Sunday, Abbas urged both sides to restart negotiations on forming a unity government.

Abbas is under pressure from Washington not to join a government led by Hamas unless it meets international demands. He is scheduled to meet U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice later this week during her visit to the region.

But Abbas is also under domestic pressure to ease the financial crisis and prevent more bloodshed.

Fatah organised a one-day commercial strike in parts of the West Bank on Monday to protest against the flare-up in violence. Hamas suspended government work after Fatah supporters attacked government buildings in Ramallah.

Seyam of Hamas promised legal action against those behind the violence and said Palestinian infighting could only benefit Israel, which launched a ground offensive in Gaza in June after militants seized an Israeli soldier in a cross-border raid.

An Israeli naval ship fired at a small Palestinian boat on Monday, killing one fisherman, his friends said.

An army spokesman said warning shots are typically fired at boats that stray beyond authorised areas but it was unclear what happened in this instance.

(Additional reporting by Mohammed Assadi in Ramallah and Adel Abu Nimeh in Jericho)

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