Gaza City, Gaza Strip – Hamas officials reported that a rocket-propelled grenade was fired at the house of Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, causing damage but no injuries. That attack came just hours after Monday’s brutal infighting that killed 17 Palestinians.
Haniyeh and his family were present during the attack on the house in the Shati refugee camp on the outskirts of Gaza City, the Hamas security officials said. A day earlier, Haniyeh’s house had also come under fire.
Meanwhile, rival gunmen exchanged fire at two Gaza hospitals and Cabinet ministers fled their weekly meeting after the government headquarters was caught in the crossfire.
The battles came a day after two militants from the rival Hamas and Fatah factions were dragged onto high-rise rooftops and thrown to their death in a power struggle that appears to be rapidly descending into all-out confrontation.
After sundown Monday, gunmen, apparently from Hamas, laid siege to the house of Jamal Abu al-Jediyan, the senior Fatah official in northern Gaza. They then dragged him outside and killed him, security officials said. Medics said he was hit by 45 bullets.
Al-Jediyan was a top aide to Gaza Fatah strongman Mohammed Dahlan. Al-Jediyan’s brother was also killed, apparently in the same shootout.
Fatah called on its members to target all Hamas political and military leaders.
The bloodiest clashes of the day took place in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun. Fatah and Hamas gunmen exchanged fire near Beit Hanoun Hospital, killing a Hamas supporter. The battle then moved to the hospital, where three men from a Fatah-allied clan were shot dead.
Early today, three women and a child were killed when Hamas militants attacked the home of a senior Fatah security official with mortars and grenades, security officials said. The gunmen seized Hassan Abu Rabie and killed his 14-year-old son and three other women in the house.
