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Killing of militant commander sparks gun battles in Gaza
A commander of a militant Palestinian group accused of firing missiles into Israel was killed yesterday in an explosion which led to gun battles that killed at least two people.
Khalil al-Quqa died when his car exploded outside a mosque in Gaza City. The Israeli army denied responsibility and members of the group Popular Resistance Committees, later blamed the explosion on Palestinian security forces.
The killing sparked gunfights and angry protests and at least two men were killed at the funeral. When Abu Abir, a spokesman for the PRC, called a news conference to discuss the killing, rival gunmen, believed to be Preventive Security agents, showed up, sparking a shootout. Hospital officials said two teenage boys, aged 13 and 15, were wounded, one seriously. The PRC said one of its members was abducted.
Mr Abir told Associated Press the security service had been trying to kill Mr Quqa for some time, and that agents of Mohammed Dahlan and Samir Masharawi, two Fatah leaders, were seen spying on Mr Quqa's home on Thursday. He said Mr Quqa was a former member of the security services, who were upset about his defection. "This is not the first time they tried to kill him," he said. "There is a long history of conflict between us. The Preventive Security always tries to demean our members."
Mr Abir said Mr Quqa and other PRC leaders had recently attended a meeting to plan an attack on Israeli targets. "He [Quqa] said he knew he was going to be assassinated soon," Mr Abir said.
The Preventative Security force is the secret service of the Palestinian Authority and its main role before the second intifada in 2000 was to police Palestinian militant groups. It had a lead role in the arrest of Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants in the 1990s. In theory it is under the control of the ministry of interior now headed by Hamas, but in practice it is a private army loyal to Mr Dahlan and other members of Fatah in Gaza.
Said Siyam, the Hamas interior minister, promised to bring the killers to justice. "We regret the exchange of accusations and the mentioning of names. This doesn't serve the internal unity of the Palestinian people and we call on all brothers to take their time and not to rush behind these blind internal divisions," he told Associated Press.
More
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1744522,00.html
The killing sparked gunfights and angry protests and at least two men were killed at the funeral. When Abu Abir, a spokesman for the PRC, called a news conference to discuss the killing, rival gunmen, believed to be Preventive Security agents, showed up, sparking a shootout. Hospital officials said two teenage boys, aged 13 and 15, were wounded, one seriously. The PRC said one of its members was abducted.
Mr Abir told Associated Press the security service had been trying to kill Mr Quqa for some time, and that agents of Mohammed Dahlan and Samir Masharawi, two Fatah leaders, were seen spying on Mr Quqa's home on Thursday. He said Mr Quqa was a former member of the security services, who were upset about his defection. "This is not the first time they tried to kill him," he said. "There is a long history of conflict between us. The Preventive Security always tries to demean our members."
Mr Abir said Mr Quqa and other PRC leaders had recently attended a meeting to plan an attack on Israeli targets. "He [Quqa] said he knew he was going to be assassinated soon," Mr Abir said.
The Preventative Security force is the secret service of the Palestinian Authority and its main role before the second intifada in 2000 was to police Palestinian militant groups. It had a lead role in the arrest of Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants in the 1990s. In theory it is under the control of the ministry of interior now headed by Hamas, but in practice it is a private army loyal to Mr Dahlan and other members of Fatah in Gaza.
Said Siyam, the Hamas interior minister, promised to bring the killers to justice. "We regret the exchange of accusations and the mentioning of names. This doesn't serve the internal unity of the Palestinian people and we call on all brothers to take their time and not to rush behind these blind internal divisions," he told Associated Press.
More
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1744522,00.html
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The meeting followed a day of unrest sparked by the death of Abu Yousef Abu Quka, a Palestinian militant with ties to Hamas, in a car bombing. His followers blamed security forces linked to the rival Fatah movement.
Information Minister Yousef Rizka said the government decided to form a committee to look into the killing. He also said the government pledged "to remove all arms from the street."
Earlier Friday, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh appealed for calm in Gaza, saying the Hamas-led government he leads would investigate Abu Quka's killing.
Haniyeh told Reuters that he asked his interior minister, Saeed Seyam, to conduct an immediate investigation into the death of Abu Quka, a top commander in the Popular Resistance Committees, an umbrella group of militants in Gaza often responsible for rocket attacks against Israel.
Gunmen later left the streets, heeding calls from government ministers as tensions on Gaza's streets eased, PRC spokesman Abu Abir said.
Abu Quka's followers blamed security forces loyal to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement for the assassination.
A shootout at the militant's funeral killed four more people - among them a member of the Palestinian security services, a PRC militant and a bystander.
More
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/701082.html
Three people died and at least 20 were hurt in fighting between Palestinian factions at the funeral of a senior militant commander.
Clashes erupted after Khalil al-Quqa of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) died in what appeared to be a car bomb.
The group accused security forces of working with Israel to kill Mr Quqa.
Israel denied any involvement in the attack.
Hospital officials said several of those injured after Mr Quqa's death were in a serious condition.
Two of those killed at the funeral in Gaza City were bystanders, they said, and a third was a PRC member who had been marching in the procession, the Associated Press news agency reported.
More
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4864254.stm
Ismail Haniya, the Palestinian prime minister, vowed on Saturday in Gaza City to end the security chaos "using law and order" and by "withdrawing armed civilians from the street to end this dangerous situation".
"What happened was dangerous and must not be repeated," Haniya said as Aljazeera reported that men from al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades had seized the offices of the Interior Ministry in Nablus in the West Bank.
Friday's clashes broke out when members of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), a group that often fires rockets at Israel, accused Palestinian security forces close to Abbas of helping Israel kill a top faction member in a car blast.
"The culture that dominated the Palestinian street in past years is a culture that needs time in order to turn into a culture that keeps law and order and does not resort to using arms under any condition," he added.
The declarations came after clashes between fighters and supporters of Mahmud Abbas' Palestinian Authority on Friday left three people dead and 36 wounded.
Appeal to world
"There is an escalation against the Palestinian people aimed at breaking them and the government," Haniya said.
"We ask all the countries in the world to assume their responsibility and face this escalation against our people," he said.
But armed men from Fatah fired off guns in a show of force in Gaza on Saturday, defying Haniya's orders to stay off the streets.
More
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/595D2D28-64FC-4F0B-A968-4FD2BCCC19DA.htm
About 300 gunmen shot repeatedly into the air as Fatah strongman Samir Al-Mashharawi threatened to take measures if Haniyeh failed to arrest a leader of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), a rival group he blamed for Friday’s gunbattle.
“We in Fatah will not allow this person to escape punishment,” Al-Mashharawi said.
Friday’s clashes broke out when members of PRC, a group that often fires rockets at Israel, accused Palestinian security forces close to Abbas of helping Israel kill a top faction member in a car blast.
Israel’s Army denied involvement in the explosion.
Haniyeh said yesterday his government, which beat Abbas’ Fatah in a January election and now controls tens of thousands of security officers, had ordered the gunmen involved in the clashes to leave the streets in a bid to end tension.
“What happened was dangerous and must not be repeated,” Haniyeh told reporters.
“The culture that dominated the Palestinian street in past years is a culture that needs time in order to turn into a culture that keeps law and order and does not resort to using arms under any condition,” he added.
More
http://arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=80126&d=2&m=4&y=2006