GAZA CITY, May 13: Four people were killed in the bloodiest day of Palestinian infighting in weeks on Sunday as deadly clashes between Fatah and Hamas gunmen erupted in Gaza City after a senior militant was shot dead.
Two people died after loyalists of the two rival factions -- since March united in a coalition government set up with the express aim of ending such fighting -- traded fire near the presidential compound in Gaza City.
14 other Palestinians were wounded in the brief rampage, in addition to the two who died in hospital, medical sources said, updating an earlier casualty toll.
One of those killed was journalist Suleiman al-Asha, a 25-year-old member of the Islamist movement Hamas, the Palestinian journalists' union said, condemning the killing and calling for those responsible to be arrested.
Medics said that most of those wounded on the coastal road were members of Hamas, whose fighters were blamed earlier Sunday for the shooting of a local Fatah fighter in the northern Gaza Strip.
Masked gunmen in Gaza City meanwhile dragged local Hamas leader Ali Asharif from his car, witnesses said. It was not clear who the kidnappers were.
Dozens of other members of both Fatah and Hamas were later also kidnapped in Gaza City, some of whom were held only briefly and then freed, the two parties said, adding that efforts were underway to have the others released.
After night fell, the streets were empty except for masked gunmen armed with anti-tank missiles and rocket-propelled grenades, witnesses said.
The unrest highlighted the tension still running high in the Gaza Strip since Fatah and Hamas signed a ceasefire and power-sharing deal last February following months of deadly street battles.
The troubles began after Baha Abu Jarab, 32, who heads the Fatah-linked Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in his home town of Beit Lahiya, and his 27-year-old driver Tawfiq al-Bodi, were killed after masked gunmen opened fire.
Later in the day, gunmen attacked his funeral cortege in Jabaliya, wounding three mourners, a local security source said. —AFP
