GAZA: Officer loyal to Palestinian President MahmoudAbbas killed after election call

Masked gunmen killed an officer of an elite force loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday (December 17) in a dawn raid on a Gaza training camp, a day after Abbas called for new elections amid growing tensions with Hamas. Abu Ubaida, a spokesman for Hamas's armed wing, denied the group had been involved in the attack, telling Reuters: "This is a wrong and irresponsible accusation." The attack was the first of its kind against the elite Palestinian force, made up of about 3,500 security men. "A training site for the presidential guard was attacked by a mortar. What kind of a justice is this? Where is Mahmoud Abbas' decision? Where is the decision of the president? These attacks must be stopped," said one of the soldiers as he stood around the body of the dead officer. Hamas had accused Abbas of launching a coup after he announced a plan for early presidential and parliamentary elections on Saturday (December 16) in an attempt to break a political deadlock and have crippling international sanctions lifted. Dozens of masked gunmen in uniforms similar to those worn by Hamas militants shot and wounded a guard at the entrance to the camp in Gaza City and then fired and killed him at close range, a senior officer from the presidential guard told Reuters. The gunmen then stormed the camp and set fire to dozens of tents and traded gunfire with several presidential guards stationed inside, wounding at least five of them, the officer and a Palestinian security source said. The infiltrators also threw mortar bombs and fired a rocket-propelled grenade at an electrical transformer, plunging the camp into darkness. Dozens of members of Abbas's force soon rushed inside the camp and the gunmen fled, he said. Following months of factional violence that has raised fears of civil war Abbas, of Fatah, said parliamentary and presidential elections should be held as soon as possible but added efforts to form a unity government should continue. Hamas, which has a majority in parliament, said the president had no authority to call early elections. Hamas legislators were expected to call a parliamentary vote on Sunday declaring Abbas's move illegal, but it was not clear if they would have the numbers to get the vote on the agenda. On Thursday, unidentified gunmen attacked a convoy carrying Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, killing one of his bodyguards. Hamas called it an assassination attempt by the presidential guard. Fatah had said the accusation was unfounded.

ITN Source | December 17, 2006

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