Palestinians kill ‘informers’ in hospital beds
The dead were identified as Mahmoud al-Sharef, 52, and Walid Hamdiyeh, 42, who 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 in 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 the police’s inability to rein in violence.
In the West Bank town of Ramallah, hundreds of Palestinians rallied yesterday 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 Mr Arafat by Mohammed Dahlan, a former Gaza security chief campaigning for reform in Mr Arafat’s Palestinian Authority.
“You are the defenders of the sacred land,” Mr Arafat told the crowd, praising his supporters for “thwarting the conspiracy” against him. In the northern Gaza Strip overnight, Israeli troops shot dead three armed Palestinians next to a Jewish settlement.
The Israeli military said a group of men were spotted approaching the settlement’s perimeter fence and soldiers opened fire. A joint announcement from militant groups Islamic Jihad and Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades said three of their men were killed in what they called a “heroic operation”.
The funeral procession for one of the militants, including mourners carrying assault rifles, gathered outside Shifa Hospital in Gaza City when five masked gunmen entered the building unnoticed and broke into al-Sharef’s room.
One of the gunmen shot al-Sharef twice in the head with a pistol as he lay in his hospital bed, police said.
He was one of seven prisoners wounded earlier in Gaza Central Prison when two crude hand grenades exploded, Palestinian security officials said.
One of the wounded, Musa Ouda, 30, later died of his wounds, they said.
The explosions were in a wing reserved for men convicted of collaborating with Israel. In the second attack about 20 gunmen raced up to the hospital in four vehicles. Four gunmen ran to the intensive care unit, where they shot Hamdiyeh three times, killing him instantly.
