Leaders of rival Palestinian factions on Friday attempted to pull back from the brink of a full-scale war in the Gaza Strip as the toll in street battles between forces of the ruling Hamas party and the Fatah movement rose to 20 dead and almost 200 wounded.

Officials speaking on behalf of Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority’s Fatah president, said he and Khaled Mashaal, Hamas’s exiled leader, would meet in Saudi Arabia next week in a further attempt to forge a national unity government that would include their rival parties.