GAZA: Five Palestinian bystanders killed in clashes between rival Fatah and Hamas faction in the Gaza Strip

Record ID: 375681

  • Title: GAZA: Five Palestinian bystanders killed in clashes between rival Fatah and Hamas faction in the Gaza Strip
  • Date: 5th June 2006
  • Summary: MAN WOUNDED IN CLASHES BEING WHEELED INTO HOSPITAL AMBULANCE DRIVING AWAY / CROWD OUTSIDE HOSPITAL ENTRANCE
  • Embargoed: 20th June 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVA9I5H1ZBXER51GN8S39PW3AEW7
  • Story Text: Palestinian gunmen killed five bystanders in two separate shooting incidents in the Gaza Strip on Sunday as tension between rival factions in the impoverished territory deteriorated even further.
    In a shooting incident in the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis gunmen killed a pregnant Palestinian woman and another family member and wounded her husband and his brother, a Hamas militant, hospital sources said.
    Witnesses said gunmen, whose identity was unclear, shot at local Hamas leader Mohammad al-Ghalban as he was travelling in a car with family members after dark in the town of Khan Younis.
    The motive for the shooting was not known, but local Hamas militia blamed rival Fatah gunmen for the attack and subsequently deployed in the streets as tensions rose in town in the southern part of the coastal strip.
    Ghalban and his brother, who was critically wounded, were being treated at a Gaza hospital, medics said.
    In a separate incident in Gaza City, Hamas militants killed three bystanders while returning fire at unknown gunmen, local witnesses said. The three victims, all male, were pronouced dead at a Gaza hospital, medics said.
    The deaths are the first since a Palestinian security officer was killed and seven were wounded in clashes between rival Fatah and Hamas factions in Gaza last Thursday, underscoring growing tension in the coastal strip.
    The clashes have disrupted a tenuous peace that in place since President Mahmoud Abbas, Fatah's leader, and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh's Hamas-led government began talks last month to try to end violence in Gaza.
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