Three Palestinians have been killed in clashes in Gaza between armed men and the security forces. The violence on Friday was sparked by the death of a Palestinian resistance fighter who died in a car-bomb explosion earlier during the day. Rival Palestinian factions clashed at the funeral of Abu Youssef al-Quqa, killing three people and wounding at least 20 others, hospital officials in Gaza said."We have a big mess here," said Dr Bakr Abu-Safira, an emergency room physician. Hospital officials said two of the dead were bystanders. A boy was wounded in the head by flying debris after the explosion, but his injury is not life threatening.
Ismail Haniya, the Palestinian prime minister, appealed for calm after the killing, and said the Hamas-led government he leads would launch an investigation. Haniya told Reuters that he asked his interior minister, Saeed Seyam, to conduct an immediate investigation into the death of al-Quqa, a top commander in the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), an umbrella group of fighters in Gaza often responsible for rocket attacks against Israel.
Al Jazeera's correspondent in Gaza, Hiba Akila, reported that Israeli artillery on Friday shelled uninhabited arable lands in the northeastern part of the Gaza Strip. Fighters loyal to al-Quqa accused Palestinian security forces of collaborating with Israel in the killing, triggering a series of gunfights in Gaza after the explosion. Israel denied any involvement in the blast outside a mosque at the start of Friday prayers that killed al-Quqa.