Gaza gunmen kill one Hamas member, wound four

GAZA (Reuters) – Gunmen in Gaza shot and killed one Hamas
member and wounded four others from the Islamic militant group
on Wednesday in renewed violence after Prime Minister Ismail
Haniyeh called for rival factions to show restraint.

No group claimed responsibility for the shootings, which
came amid a power struggle between Hamas, now in charge of the
Palestinian government, and President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah
faction.

Hamas sources said three unarmed Hamas members were
kidnapped at dawn in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.
They were later dumped on a street with gunshot wounds in their
legs. Medics said one of the wounded men later died.

Relatives of the three Hamas members blamed Fatah gunmen
for the abduction.

Two Hamas members were injured in a separate drive-by
shooting in Gaza City, Hamas sources said.

The violence followed an appeal by Haniyeh on Tuesday to
“all our people to be calm and show more self-restraint.”

The battle for control of security in Gaza has raised fears
of civil war, which could cripple the Palestinian Authority and
strengthen Israel’s position to impose final borders with the
Palestinians unilaterally in the absence of peace talks.