Snitches murdered in hospital

2004-08-02 21:25

Gaza City - Palestinian gunmen twice broke into a Gaza City hospital and killed convicted collaborators with Israeli intelligence, hours after they were brought for treatment of wounds suffered when a grenade exploded in their jail cell.

The dead were identified as Mahmoud al-Sharef, 52, and Walid Hamdiyeh, 42. They were killed in similar attacks a few hours apart.

Gunmen pulled up to Shifa Hospital in several vehicles. While some militants closed the street, others raced into the hospital and gunned down the convicted collaborators.

Hamdiyeh confessed during a 2002 trial to providing Israel with information that helped its forces kill Imad Akel, a founder of the Hamas military wing, in 1993.

Al-Sharef was convicted in 1999 of being involved in the killing of Mahmoud al-Khawja, the founder of Islamic Jihad's military wing, four years earlier.

Assassinations of collaborators are relatively common, but this one came amid growing lawlessness in the Palestinian territories that has highlighted police's inability to rein in violence.

Support for Arafat

In the West Bank town of Ramallah, hundreds of Palestinians rallied on Monday in support of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who has been under a barrage of criticism over lawlessness and corruption in the Palestinian territories.

The rally came a day after Arab newspapers published unusually sharp comments against Arafat by Mohammed Dahlan, a former Gaza security chief campaigning for reform in Arafat's Palestinian Authority.

"You are the defenders of the sacred land," Arafat told the crowd, praising his supporters for "thwarting the conspiracy" against him.

Dahlan was quoted on Sunday by a Kuwaiti newspaper as threatening huge demonstrations in Gaza unless Arafat reforms his government within 10 days.

- AP