Rafah, Gaza Strip – Hamas gunmen seized control of the Gaza Strip’s border crossing with Egypt on Thursday in a ferocious gun battle with Fatah-allied border guards after Israel blocked the Hamas prime minister from crossing with tens of millions of dollars in aid.
Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh was eventually allowed to cross without the estimated $35 million cash, but on the Gaza side of the border, his convoy came under intense fire from Fatah gunmen, and one of his bodyguards was killed. Hamas said the gunmen had been aiming to kill the prime minister.
“The bodyguard to Ismail Haniyeh was killed during an assassination attempt,” said Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum.
More than two dozen people were wounded in the fighting, deepening factional violence that has pushed the rivals closer to civil war. One of the injured was Haniyeh’s 27-year-old son, Abed.
Haniyeh cut short a trip abroad and was trying to return to Gaza in a bid to quell the infighting between Hamas and Fatah. He was carrying the cash for his government, which has been bankrupted by international sanctions to punish Hamas for refusing to renounce its violent, anti-Israel ideology.
Israeli officials said from the beginning that Haniyeh could cross into Gaza without the money. Egyptian mediators stepped in to help resolve the standoff, and Haniyeh finally was allowed to cross into Gaza late Thursday. But Maria Telleria, spokeswoman for European border monitors at the crossing, said Haniyeh left the funds in Egypt.
Earlier Thursday, pro-Fatah Palestinian officers arrested a Hamas-linked militant in the killing of the three sons of a Fatah security chief. The militant’s allies retaliated by kidnapping a security officer.
