Collaborator killed in his hospital bed

Five masked men broke into a Gaza hospital today and shot dead a convicted collaborator who had been wounded in a grenade attack in his Palestinian prison just hours earlier.

After the shooting, police questioned one of the suspected gunmen who claimed to be a relative of the victim avenging the shame he had brought to his family.

It was not clear if the gunman was arrested, and the fate of his four accomplices remained unknown.

The five masked gunmen entered Gaza’s Shifa hospital unnoticed as a funeral procession for a militant, including mourners carrying assault rifles, gathered outside the building.

One shot al Sharef, 52, twice in the head with a pistol as he lay in his hospital bed, police said.

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.

He was one of seven prisoners wounded earlier today in Gaza Central Prison when two crude hand grenades exploded.

The explosions were in a wing reserved for men convicted of collaborating with Israel.

The assassination came amid growing lawlessness in the Palestinian territories that has highlighted police inability to rein in violence.

In the West Bank town of Ramallah, hundreds of Palestinians rallied today 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 has threatened huge demonstrations in Gaza unless Arafat reforms his government within 10 days.

“Arafat now sits on the bodies and ruins of Palestinians at a time when they most need support,” he was quoted as saying.