January 9, 2002	Wednesday	Shawwal 24, 1422

GAZA STRIP, Jan 8: A member of the radical Islamic movement Hamas was shot and slightly wounded while trying to escape arrest by Palestinian security officials in Gaza City on Tuesday, witnesses and security officials said.

Two schoolgirls and a doctor were also slightly injuring by flying bullets, hospital officials said.

Ahmed Lubad, a 35-year-old nurse, tried to escape in a car when Palestinian officers turned up in the Shaati refugee camp to arrest him, security officials said.

There was an exchange of fire and Lubad was injured in the shoulder, they said.

Camp residents said Lubad was a Hamas member wanted by the police. Witnesses said the shooting erupted at the entrance to a UN-run hospital in the refugee camp.

Hamas said in a statement that police surrounded Lubad’s car and started shooting “like crazy,” even chasing him inside the hospital.

According to a statement issued later by the Palestinian intelligence services, Lubad opened fire first.

He is wanted “by the Palestinian judiciary for having caused unrest, fired shots and damaged oublic property,” the statement added, assuring that the police did not enter the hospital at any point.

The group called the incident an “assassination attempt” which threatened to trigger civil unrest on the streets of the Palestinian territories.

“Hamas puts all the responsibility on the Palestinian intelligence service in Gaza,” it warned.

Security officials said that shortly after the incident, some 200 youths hurled stones and a home-made grenade on the camp’s police station, prompting more police and members of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement to move in to disperse the crowd.

They said no damage or injuries were inflicted in the protest.—AFP