A Palestinian man was killed on Tuesday in the West Bank town of Nablus after fighting broke out between supporters of rival Palestinian candidates for upcoming parliamentary elections on Wednesday.
On Monday night, a similar incident occurred when a member of the leading Fatah party, headed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, was stabbed by a supporter of the rival Hamas party, according to Ynet.
Rivalry between competing groups has been the cause of intermittent violence since campaigning began.
According to Palestinian sources, the victim was identified as Ahmad Yousef Abdel Jabbar Hassuna, 36. PCHR reported that on Monday night a group of gunmen carrying automatic rifles came to the victim’s house in Rafedeya neighborhood, Nablus. They asked him to remove from his house wall a picture of PLC candidate Ghassan El-Shak’a; but he refused to comply with their demand. The gunmen left. And at approximately 02:00 on Tuesday, 10 unidentified gunmen came to the house and attempted to remove the picture. Their voices woke up Hassouna, who came out of his house carrying a pistol. The gunmen immediately opened fire at him, hitting him with a bullet in the head. He died instantly.
Preparations are underway throughout the Palestinian territories for the elections, which are expected to reveal a close race between the leading Fatah and Hamas.
To accommodate the elections, Israeli authorities announced on Monday that the Israeli military would cease all operations in the Palestinian territories until after elections were over.
The pledge excluded operations against what Israel termed "ticking bombs," or concrete evidence against those planning an attack against Israeli soldiers or civilians.
In an apprent case of such a scenario, Israeli security forces continued operations overnight and arrested a senior member of the Islamic Jihad faction late Monday in the northern West Bank. Israeli sources said that Mahmoud Abu-Rob, who was apprehended in the town of Kabatya, was planning an attack in Israel in the near future.
Three other Palestinians were also arrested in an overnight raid in Ramallah, during which gunshots were fired at Israeli soldiers.
Also in the West Bank, three Molotov cocktails were thrown at an Israeli vehicle in the town of Qalqilia.
Meanwhile in the Gaza Strip, three Qassam rockets were fired from the northern Strip towards Israeli territory.
