Palestinian Civil War Watch
Charles Johnson
Fri Jan 5, 2007 at 8:00 am PST • Views: 140
A Palestinian Muslim cleric who called for an end to fighting between Hamas and Fatah was murdered after Friday prayers.
But don’t get the idea this was some kind of pacifist; when you’re fighting among yourselves, you aren’t killing Jews.
GAZA (Reuters) - Unidentified gunmen shot dead a Muslim cleric after he delivered a sermon in the Gaza Strip on Friday calling for an end to fierce factional fighting between Hamas and Fatah, hospital officials and local residents said.
The cleric’s shooting in central Gaza came hours after Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas said he and President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah had agreed to keep rival gunmen off Gaza’s streets after clashes in which eight were killed.
Tension remained high across the coastal strip as thousands of Palestinians loyal to Fatah took part in funeral marches for a commander killed in a barrage of rocket-propelled grenades fired by Hamas gunmen on Thursday.
Brushing aside Haniyeh’s plea for calm, Fatah issued a harshly worded statement in Gaza: “Blood for blood and aggression for aggression… and all the sons of the movement should retaliate to each aggression openly.”
The Muslim cleric, who was in a car when the gunmen opened fire, was affiliated with neither Hamas nor Fatah. No group claimed responsibility for the shooting, which occurred after services at a mosque in the Maghazi refugee camp.
Frank says: