GAZA CITY, Aug 2, 2007 (AFP) - Two Palestinians were killed in Gaza by Hamas gunmen on Thursday, as clashes continued between the Islamist movement and its smaller rival the Islamic Jihad.

Medics said the bullet-ridden bodies of the two men -- one of them a Jihad militant and another a member of the deposed Fatah party -- were driven to hospital after they were killed in eastern Gaza.

Hamas gunmen chased four fleeing Jihad members into a mosque, where they shot one of them, Nidal al-Daya, and wounded the three others, a Jihad member said on condition of anonymity.

"The four Jihad members were chased and took refuge in the Ard al-Ribat mosque," he said. "But the (Hamas) men broke into the mosque and opened fire."

Daya, 21, was killed when the Hamas fighters shot him repeatedly in the head at point-blank range, he said.

A member of Fatah, 37-year-old Salah Amudi, was killed in gunfire exchanges shortly afterward outside the mosque, witnesses and Jihad said.

No immediate comment from Hamas was available.

The fighting came a day after a member of Hamas's paramilitary, the Executive Force, was killed in clashes with Jihad militants in Gaza City.

It marked the first deadly clash between the two groups since Hamas seized power in Gaza on June 15, violently routing Fatah forces loyal to moderate president Mahmud Abbas.

The Hamas man was killed when he and other member of the Executive Force -- which has been acting as police since the Hamas takeover -- attempted to arrest a Jihad member for firing shots into the air at a wedding the previous day.

Hamas has forbid the firing of weapons into the air -- which in Gaza is a traditional practice at weddings, protests and other public gatherings -- aiming to restore security in the lawless coastal strip.

©2007 AFP All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or distributed. All reproduction or redistribution is expressly forbidden without the prior written agreement of AFP.

top