Four Palestinians died in the bloodiest day of infighting in weeks on Sunday as deadly clashes between Fatah and Hamas gunmen erupted in Gaza City after a senior Fatah activist was shot dead. The local chief in the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed faction linked to Fatah, was shot dead by masked gunmen in the Gaza Strip Sunday noon, medical sources said.
Baha Abu Jarab, 32, who heads the Brigades in his home town of Beit Lahiya was shot on his way home in the northern Gaza Strip, said Fatah spokesman Tawfiq Abu Khossa, blaming Hamas for the attack. According to AFP, medical sources said he sustained several gunshot wounds to the body and died later.
Two people died after loyalists of the two rival factions exchanged fire near the presidential compound in Gaza City. Fourteen other Palestinians were wounded in the brief rampage, AFP reported.
One of those killed was journalist Suleiman al-Asha, a 25-year-old member of Hamas, the Palestinian journalists' union said.
At least 10 Palestinians were injured Friday in shootouts between Fatah and Hamas.
Meanwhile in Jerusalem, Israeli ministers were expected on Sunday to approve intensified operations against Gaza Strip rocket squads, but to stop short of authorizing a large-scale operation to try to stop daily attacks on southern Israel, government officials said.
The rocket fire generates great panic in areas of southern Israel that are frequent targets. Three missiles were launched early Sunday, but no one was hurt, the army said.
At Israel's Security Cabinet meeting, senior defense officials were to present a range of options to counter the rocket fire. According to the AP, the Israeli security officials were expected to propose increased strikes against rocket-launchers and operations in outlying areas of the Gaza Strip where the projectiles are fired, they said.
