Tension escalates between Palestinian factions

The chief of the Palestinian intelligence service was severely wounded on May 21 by a bomb blast that tore through his headquarters in the northern Gaza Strip, killing one of his bodyguards and injuring seven other people. The intelligence chief, Maj. Gen. Tareq Abu Rajab, is a senior member of the Fatah party and an ally of the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Palestinian officials were hesitant to pin the assassination attempts on Hamas, which denied having a hand in them. A previously unknown group, the Qaida Organization of the State of Palestine, said on a website that it had tried to kill Rajab and planned to assassinate Abbas. But Palestinian officials were skeptical of the claim's authenticity. There have been assassination attempts before against Rajab, who is known as a staunch opponent of Hamas and other armed groups. Last week he was appointed to head a committee investigating alleged attempts by Hamas to smuggle weapons into Jordan for attacks there. Palestinian security forces said they had foiled an attempt to assassinate a senior commander loyal to Abbas after discovering a large bomb outside his Gaza City home. Officials said they believe the 150-pound bomb was meant for Rashid Abu Shbak, the head of the Palestinian security forces. The assassination attempts came at time of rising tension between leaders of Hamas, now running the Palestinian government ministries, and the Fatah party. The two parties, each with armed wings, have been vying for control of the Palestinian security services since Hamas's upset victory in the January parliamentary elections. The Hamas-led Palestinian Authority deployed a new militia in Gaza on May 17 under the command of a leading militant and in direct defiance of a veto by Abbas. The paramilitary "implementation force," led by Jamal Abu Samadhana, took up positions on the streets of Gaza cities with the stated aim of restoring order in the increasingly lawless Strip. Abbas responded that night by ordering a large number of members of the security forces under his command to be placed on the streets in Gaza. Witnesses told Associated Press that members of the Hamas-supporting force beat demonstrators at the Education Ministry offices in the southern Gaza town of Khan Yunis. Ministry officials and protesters said around 40 militiamen had jumped from jeeps and fired in the air before entering the building and attacking protesters with clubs and rifles. Around 3,000 members of the security services–drawn from the ranks of the national and preventive security forces as well as Abbas's own elite Force 17 unit–rallied in downtown Gaza City to denounce the new force. In the days following the deployment of the Hamas paramilitary force, gunfights broke out between the militia and forces loyal to Abbas. Two police officers and a Hamas paramilitary were injured on May 18 in Gaza City as a stand-off between the two forces descended into gun fights. Police said that members of the new force opened fire on the police headquarters in Gaza City, while witnesses reported other gunbattles elsewhere in Gaza City that broke up without causing any casualties. Hamas gunmen traded heavy fire with Palestinian police near the Parliament building in Gaza City on May 22, killing the driver of Jordan's ambassador in Gaza and wounding three people. The diplomat's car was hit by three bullets fired into the windshield. The ambassador was not in the vehicle when it came under fire. It was not clear whether the vehicle was a target or inadvertently drove into the battle. During the fighting, Hamas gunmen, holed up in an abandoned building during the battle, fired a rocket-propelled grenade and threw two hand grenades at the police, witnesses said. Tensions spread beyond Gaza, as Hamas deputy premier Nasserdine al-Shaer cut short a tour in the West Bank when Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades gunmen, loosely affiliated to Abbas's Fatah faction, opened fire and blocked his vehicle. With Abbas and the Hamas-led government jockeying for power, control over the security forces is a potentially explosive issue. In theory, the Palestinian president is to share responsibility for the security forces with the prime minister and his cabinet. A senior official in Abbas's office warned that the deployment of the new force "could lead to a civil war" and demanded that the force withdraw to allow the security services to carry out their duties. Continued Israeli missile and artillery attacks have added to growing tension. The Israeli air force killed an Islamic Jihad commander and three civilians, including a woman and her four-year-old child, in a rocket attack in the Gaza Strip on May 20. The targeted man was identified as Muhammad Sha'ban al-Dahdouh, who the Israeli military claimed was responsible for rocket attacks against Israel. In the West Bank, Israeli soldiers killed two members of Islamic Jihad in a raid in Nablus, the Israeli military and Palestinian security officials said. The Israeli forces surrounded a house where the militants were holed up, and traded shots for several hours. Afterward, the Israelis said they had found more than 50 pounds of explosives hidden in the house. Since April the Israeli army has killed about 45 Palestinians, including five children, in scores of raids on the West Bank and by firing thousands of shells into the Gaza Strip. The victims included women and elderly farmers. Scores have been wounded and hundreds of people have been arrested. Israel has fired more than 5,100 shells into Gaza since the beginning of last month in response, it says, to Palestinian groups firing rudimentary "Qassam" rockets. However human rights groups call the Israeli response disproportionate, noting that the army has fired many thousands of shells more than the Palestinians have launched Qassams.