17 killed in Gaza Strip infighting including senior Dahlan aide
By Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz Correspondent and News Agencies
Rival Palestinian gunmen exchanged fire at two Gaza hospitals, and Cabinet ministers fled their weekly meeting after the government headquarters was hit in crossfire Monday, in the latest round in an increasingly brutal power struggle between Hamas and Fatah.
In all, 17 Palestinians were killed Monday and early Tuesday, including three shot dead in Beit Hanoun Hospital in northern Gaza. At Gaza's largest hospital, Shifa in Gaza City, combatants fired mortars, grenades and assault rifles.
In spite of a Fatah announcement of a unilateral cease-fire, Naim al-Dahdouh, a senior member of the Hamas military wing, was killed late Monday and the exchanges of fire continued.
After sundown, gunmen, apparently from Hamas, laid siege to the house of Jamal Abu al-Jediyan, the senior Fatah official in northern Gaza, then dragged him outside and killed him, security officials said. Medics said he was hit by 45 bullets.
Al-Jedian was the Secretary General of the Fatah movement in the northern Gaza Strip and a co-founder of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade. He was also a close associate of Mohammed Dahlan, a Fatah strongman and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' security adviser. In the past, Abu-Jedian had been the target of several Hamas assassination attempts.
Palestinian sources said Al-Jedian had been executed outside his home. Medics said 45 bullets had been used in his assassination.
Fatah spokesman Maher Mikdad harshly denounced the killing. "What is this, if not a war," he said, pledging revenge. In a message, Fatah called on its members to target all Hamas political and military leaders.
Nabil Abu Rdeneh, an aide to Abbas, said no end was in sight. "You can see for yourself there's no taste for a cease-fire right now," he told The Associated Press by telephone, blaming Hamas.
The frustrated head of the Egyptian security delegation, Maj. Gen. Burhan Hamad, who has been trying to negotiate a truce, told Palestinian TV he would call the people out onto the streets to protest if the two rivals do not agree to stand down.
Two others were killed in battles late Monday in northern Gaza, Palestinian security and hospital officials said.
Later, Hamas said one of its men, who was kidnapped earlier, was found dead in a Gaza street.
Early Tuesday, three women and a child were killed when Hamas militants
attacked the home of a senior Fatah security official with mortars and
grenades, Palestinian security officials said. The gunmen seized Hassan Abu Rabie and killed his 14-year-old son and three other women in the house, hospital officials said.
Also, Fatah gunmen stormed the house of a Hamas lawmaker and burned it to the ground.
Earlier Monday, Hamas gunmen killed Fatah intelligence officer Yasser Bakar, and his 16-year old brother. The incident prompted members of his family to launch a revenge shooting spree. Two members of Hamas, barricaded inside Gaza's biggest hospital, Shifa, were killed during the melee.
Hospital officials reported that Bakar gunmen began firing mortars and rocket-propelled grenades at Shifa Hospital, drawing Hamas fire from inside the building. During the Shifa fighting, top Hamas militant Mazen Ajur was killed. Another member of the Bakar clan was also killed.
In separate fighting at a hospital in Beit Hanun, three people were killed and at least 10 were wounded. The dead were identified as 'Id al-Masri and his two sons, Farej and Ibrahim, of the al-Masri clan, which has ties to the Fatah movement.
Mohammed Odeh, a volunteer for the Red Crescent rescue service, said one of the dead had been shot at close range. Hospital officials reported that the three victims were at the hospital being treated for injuries.
In another incident in Beit Lahia, Hamas member Bassel al-Caparna was also killed.
Hospital authorities announced that they were suspending their work in view of the clashes inside the hospital.
The clashes had reignited after the cease-fire had been put in place with a gun battle outside the parliament building in Gaza City, while the Palestinian cabinet was meeting.
The cease-fire was implemented after gunmen carried out a pre-dawn attack on the home of Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, and also targeted the offices of the Hamas-run Culture Ministry. Culture Minister Bassem Naim was inside the building at the time at the attack, said his sister Huda. There were no injuries, she said, accusing Fatah of trying to kill her brother.
"It was the Fatah gangs. There was no justification. We were at work, and the ministry came under fire," a ministry official, identified only as Ahmed, told Hamas' Al-Aqsa radio station.
Fatah spokesman Maher Mekdad said the gunfire at the Culture Ministry erupted after Hamas snipers on the roof fired at a security convoy. "The security men returned fire," he said.
The attacks came after two militants, ¬ first one from Fatah and later a Hamas member, ¬ were dragged onto the roofs of Gaza high-rises and thrown to their deaths.
There were no reports of casualties in the attack on Haniyeh's house in the Shati refugee camp, adjacent to Gaza City. His office wouldn't say whether he was inside, but his family said that his wife, children and grandchildren had been at home.
It was the first time in a month of infighting that Haniyeh was an apparent target.
The two sides have been locked in a violent power struggle since Hamas defeated Fatah in January 2006 legislative elections, ending four decades of Fatah rule.
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Each one of these would have the CE flooded with condemnations if Israel was involved. As things turn out to be, LABOB et al are nowhere to be seen.
I still wouldn't rule out FS popping up blaming the Israeli occupation.
