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Palestinian is carried away after being shot after IDF troops were surrounded by shooters and rock throwers during an arrest operation in Ramallah. (AP)
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners May 24, 2006 |
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A Gaza security chief loyal to moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was killed Wednesday in an explosion in his car, the second attack on a top commander in less than a week.
There was no claim of responsibility, but it came at a time of an increasingly bloody power struggle between Abbas' forces and the Hamas government.
In Ramallah north of Jerusalem, Israeli soldiers waged a fierce battle with Palestinians during a raid to arrest a top militant, killing three people and injuring more than 30 others.
Nabil Hodhod, central Gaza commander of the powerful, Fatah-linked Preventive Security force, was killed when a blast ripped through his car in downtown Gaza City, not far from Shifa Hospital. His deputy was wounded.
Government spokesman Ghazi Hamad of Hamas said the explosion was an accident.
Hodhod was the highest official to be killed in a week of violent incidents, sparked by Hamas' fielding of its own militia in defiance of a ban by Abbas. However, two other senior security officers have been targeted.
On Saturday, intelligence chief Tareq Abu Rajab was seriously wounded in an explosion in his Gaza office, and on Sunday, Palestinian security found a huge bomb on the road used by security commander Rashid Abu Shbak to drive to his office, an apparent assassination attempt.
Abu Shbak, a Fatah stalwart, has become a symbol of the conflict. Abbas appointed him to command three security forces nominally under the authority of the Hamas-controlled Interior Ministry. Hamas responded by deploying its own 3,000-strong militia made up of militants.
In Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian government in the West Bank, the second Israeli arrest raid in as many days turned violent from the outset.
Palestinians spotted undercover Israeli forces in a Ford sedan near Manara Square in the center of the city, opening fire and throwing rocks at the soldiers, Palestinian officials and the Israeli military said. The Israelis in the car and reinforcements brought in for the raid returned the fire, killing four Palestinians and wounding more than 30. Ambulances darted in and out of the melee, taking casualties to the local hospital.
One of the dead was a police officer and the other three were civilians, Palestinians said. The military said a soldier was slightly wounded in the clash.
Television footage showed the streets of central Ramallah deserted except for a few jeeps, as smoke rose from nearby buildings. Rocks littered the streets after the Israelis withdrew.
The Israelis succeeded in capturing the militant they wanted, Mohammed Shubaki of Islamic Jihad. Israel Army Radio said he was a leader of the northern West Bank cell of Islamic Jihad responsible for all of the suicide bombings in Israel over the past year.
On Tuesday, Israeli soldiers surrounded a house in Ramallah and arrested Ibrahim Hamed, the top Hamas commander in the West Bank, said by Israel to be responsible for suicide bomb attacks that killed 78 people, including five Americans, over the past five years.
Even before the Preventive Security chief was killed late Wednesday afternoon, tensions were running high in Gaza.
Masked gunmen seized three Hamas militants outside a mosque Wednesday, shot them and dumped them with stomach and leg injuries at a gas station. One of the Hamas men later died of his wounds at a hospital.
In a new twist, a 1,000-strong unit of gunmen made its debut Wednesday, marching through Gaza City in black T-shirts and bandanas. They professed support for the Hamas militia, even though the logos on their T-shirts identified them as Fatah loyalists.
Fatah immediately distanced themselves from the unit. The new unit's commander, Khaled Abu Hilal, is a former Fatah member who has since been disowned by the group and serves as spokesman of the Hamas-controlled Interior Ministry.
Hamas held Fatah gunmen responsible for the deadly shooting Wednesday near the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis. Hamas said the kidnappers were also members of the Preventive Security Service, a security branch allied with Abbas.
The incident began after morning prayers when the three Hamas militants emerged from a mosque. A car with masked gunmen pulled up, bundled the Hamas members into the vehicle and sped off, Hamas officials said.
About 15 minutes later, the three Hamas men were found lying in the street, near a gas station. Hamas officials said one died at a nearby hospital.
Also Wednesday, Israeli Justice Minister Cabinet Haim Ramon said Israel will move with plans to draw its final borders if Hamas does not recognize Israel and renounce violence within six months.
Ramon, a close associate of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, spoke hours after U.S. President George W. Bush referred in surprisingly warm tones to the Israeli leader's plan to withdraw unilaterally from parts of the West Bank. Bush called the idea "an important step" toward peace.
Addressing a joint session of the U.S. Congress on Wednesday, Olmert insisted that he prefers negotiations with the Palestinians but added, "We cannot wait for the Palestinians forever."
In an AP interview, Nasser Shaer of Hamas, the deputy Palestinian premier, said the government would support a task force that favors negotiations with Israel -- a way of finessing Hamas refusal to talk with Israel.
But Moussa Abu Marzouk, deputy head of Hamas' political bureau, told The Associated Press by telephone from Damascus, "Hamas has not and will not negotiate (with Israel)."
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