Three Palestinians were killed and four others injured last night in
fresh clashes between militants of Hamas and Fatah movement in the Gaza Strip,
local medics and witnesses said.
Joma'a al-Saqqa, chief of emergency at the Shiffa Hospital in Gaza City, said
that two bodies of men and a third in critical conditions were sent to the
hospital after they were shot.
Witnesses in the Beach refugee camp in western Gaza said that firefight
erupted in the camp between members of the Hamas-dominant auxiliary force led by
the interior ministry and militants from Fatah movement led by Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas.
The clash took place as the Hamas-led forces, who withdrew from the camp on
Thursday after a Fatah militant in the camp was shot dead, returned back to
camp.
Relatives and friends of the killed Fatah militant protested the return of
the Hamas force and quarreled with Hamas members, said the witnesses, adding
that both exchanged fire following arguments between the two sides.
The fierce armed clashes erupted in narrow streets of the refugee camps,
where two people were killed by the gunfire of the Hamas-led auxiliary force.
Meanwhile, a 24-year-old pregnant woman was killed in southern Gaza Strip and
her husband, who is a senior member in the Hamas' armed wing Izedein al-Qassam,
was seriously wounded after their car was shattered by a group of gunmen with
automatic machine-guns.
Local witnesses said that the car carrying Yasser al-Ghalban, his wife Reem
and his brother Mohamed were driving south of the Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis
when it was attacked. Since the start of the clashes between Hamas and Fatah
militants about one and a half months ago, at least ten Palestinians and one
Jordanian have reportedly been killed in the Gaza Strip.
Tension is growing in the strip after Hamas movement accused President Abbas
of trying to topple the national dialogue by imposing advance conditions on
Hamas.
At the opening session of national dialogue held on May 25, Abbas said that
he would order a referendum within 40 days if the inter-Palestinian dialogue
fails to adopt the National Accordance filed by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli
jails.