Middle East: 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 (PRC), 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 shoot-out. Hospital officials said two teenage boys, aged 13 and 15, were wounded, one seriously. The PRC said one of its members was abducted.
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 members of Fatah in Gaza.
The violence in Gaza came after a suicide attack which killed four Israelis outside the West Bank settlement of Kedumim on Thursday night. A couple are believed to have picked up Mahmoud Masharka (24), who was dressed as an Orthodox Jew, who detonated the explosives.
The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade in Nablus claimed responsibility for the attack. It was the first suicide attack by the Fatah-linked group for more than a year.
The bombing was condemned by Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, who is in South Africa, but condoned by members of Hamas as a legitimate response to Israel's occupation of the West Bank.
- (Guardian service)