GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) -- Three Palestinians were killed Wednesday in a resurgence of factional violence in Gaza, leading to fears "an already fragile truce" between the rival Hamas and Fatah factions would completely collapse.The latest fighting came two days after Fatah and Hamas militants carried out a series of kidnappings and engaged in gunbattles in violation of a mid-December truce between the two groups, which are vying for control of the Palestinian government.
Rival gunmen poured into the streets of the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya after a 25-year-old militant from President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party was shot and killed. A woman was shot in the head and seriously wounded in the ensuing gunbattle, and 12 other people were moderately hurt, hospital and security officials said.
Meanwhile...back at the ranch...
Later in the afternoon, a group of gunmen ambushed Fatah-allied Palestinian security officers in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis, blasting their police car with bullets and a rocket-propelled grenade, and killing two of the officers, according to witnesses. The security officers were trying to take another officer to the hospital after he was wounded in an earlier clash, Fatah officials said in a statement. The officers had stormed a house where they believed a kidnapped colleague was being held, it said.Fatah officials blamed both attacks on Hamas, the Islamic group that controls the Palestinian parliament and Cabinet.
More details at link that “underscore the fragility of the latest truce”.