Armed clash between the ruling Hamas movement and its rival
Fatah movement erupted again in central Gaza Strip on Wednesday
evening, wounding at least one Palestinian, local witnesses
said.
They said that the clash broke out after a gunman hurled a
homemade hand grenade at crowds of the Islamic Resistance Movement
(Hamas) supporters who were demonstrating in the Nuseirat Refugee
camp in central Gaza Strip against an earlier killing of a judge
and a senior Hamas figure in southern Gaza Strip.
The explosion triggered immediately the exchange of fire between
Hamas and Fatah militants, they added.
Earlier Wednesday, a 45-year old judge of a Palestinian court in
southern Gaza Strip named Bassam el-Farra, who is also a member of
Hamas movement, was shot dead by unknown gunmen on his way to the
court in the city of Khan Younis.
The assassination against the Hamas member came two days after
Monday's killing of three children of an intelligence officer loyal
to Abbas, who is the head of Fatah.
Since then, the revenge killings between the two rival movements
are running high in the Gaza Strip, where six Palestinians have
been killed and eight others wounded in the spiralling wave of
chaos.
Tensions between the two rival factions mounted amid disputes on
the formation of the national unity government that aims to end the
sanctions imposed by international community.
(Xinhua News Agency December 14, 2006)
