Assassination attempt heightens tensions among Palestinians

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – An apparent attempt to assassinate Gaza’s intelligence chief with a bomb planted at his headquarters Saturday heightened tensions between President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah faction and the Islamic militant group Hamas.

Hours after the explosion, Israeli warplanes fired missiles at a car in Gaza City and killed Mohammed Dadouh, top military commander of the small militant group Islamic Jihad, Palestinian officials said. Three others traveling in a car behind Dadouh’s – a mother, her 5-year-old son and the child’s grandmother – also were killed.

The army said Dadouh was responsible for firing rockets at Israeli towns. Islamic Jihad vowed to avenge his killing.

Abbas’ security forces hinted that Hamas, which controls the Palestinian government, was behind the bomb that seriously wounded Tareq Abu Rajab, the Palestinian intelligence chief and a key ally of the moderate Abbas.

It was the latest incident to strain relations between the rival Palestinian factions in Gaza. Hamas ordered its newly formed 3,000-strong militia to take to the streets last week in blatant disregard for opposition by Abbas, who has official control of the Palestinian security forces.

The new Hamas militia and Fatah-run security forces have been in a tense standoff the past few days, evidenced by street gunfights that some analysts say may be the beginning of a broader civil war.

Abu Rajab’s deputy, Tawfiq Tirawi, was quick to point out at a news conference in the West Bank city of Ramallah that Hamas had been behind the previous attempt to kill his boss, a senior official in Fatah.

Asked whether Hamas also was responsible for Saturday’s attack, Tirawi said: “Everything is possible. I don’t rule anything out for now.”

He said the intelligence services had the names of Hamas members responsible for the previous assassination attempt on Abu Rajab.

“I am not going to pour fuel on the fire, but at the same time I warn that playing with fire will burn the hands of those who are doing it,” he said.

Some Fatah members called on Abbas to dissolve the Hamas government and call an early election. Abbas called the blast “unfortunate” and said it posed a “grave danger” to the Palestinian Authority.