Gunmen kidnap Gaza police chief

Palestinian gunmen kidnapped the Palestinian chief of police for the Gaza Strip and the West Bank today, witnesses said.

The gunmen ambushed the car carrying Ghazi Jabali in the Gaza Strip and exchanged fire with his bodyguards, said witnesses who were on the street where the incident happened, three miles south of Gaza City.

The unidentified men broke the car windows, then kidnapped Jabali and took him to an unknown destination, the witnesses said.

Jabali was taken to the Bureij Refugee Camp in the central area of the Gaza Strip, residents of the camp said.

Two of the bodyguards were taken to hospital with moderate wounds, said medical officials.

The refugee camp residents said the kidnappers were members of the Palestinian Popular Resistance Committee, a group of militants based in Gaza.

The attack could be part of an internal struggle among Palestinian factions and leaders vying for power ahead of Israel’s planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

Jabali escaped harm in April when his home was attacked and militants planted a bomb at his door.

Earlier this year, a group of men loyal to Mohammed Dahlan, the former Palestinian security chief, burst into Jabali’s office and assaulted him.