Gaza shooting kills Fatah official’s children
Palestinian gunmen killed three young sons of a senior Palestinian intelligence officer Monday, pumping dozens of bullets into their car as it passed through a street crowded with schoolchildren in an apparent botched assassination attempt that could ignite widespread factional fighting.
Senior officials in the intelligence service, which is loyal to the Fatah Party of President Mahmoud Abbas, blamed the Islamic militant group Hamas for the shooting. Balousheh, a Fatah member, was a lead interrogator in a crackdown on Hamas a decade ago.
Hamas denied involvement and denounced the bloodshed.
While dozens have been killed in Gaza’s escalating lawlessness since Hamas defeated Fatah in January parliamentary elections, the death of the children was especially shocking and was likely to trigger widespread confrontations at a time Hamas and Fatah were at loggerheads over the creation of a national unity government.
At midday, thousands of angry Fatah supporters joined a mass funeral procession for the boys that snaked through the streets of Gaza City. Hundreds of Fatah security officers fired their rifles in the air. Fatah activists burned tires, blocked roads and shut down the city’s commercial market in protest.
In the attack, gunmen in two vehicles riddled the car carrying the children with some 60 bullets, Palestinian security officials said. Three of Balousheh’s sons, ranging in age from 6 to 10, were killed, in addition to an adult, hospital officials said. Balousheh was not in the car.
Four more people were wounded in the attack on Palestine Street, which is lined with nine schools.
nytimes
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