GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – A Gaza security chief loyal to the Palestinian president was killed Wednesday when his car blew up, the second attack on a top commander in less than a week.
There was no claim of responsibility, but the explosion came at a time of an increasingly bloody power struggle between President Mahmoud Abbas’ forces and those of the Hamas-led government.
In the West Bank, Israeli soldiers waged a fierce battle with Palestinians during a raid to arrest a top militant, killing four people and wounding more than 30.
Nabil Hodhod, central Gaza commander of the powerful, Fatah-linked Preventive Security force, was killed when a blast ripped through his car in downtown Gaza City. His deputy was wounded.
Hodhod was the highest-ranking official to be killed in a week of violent incidents, sparked by Hamas’ fielding of its own militia in defiance of a ban by Abbas. Two other senior security officers have been targeted.
On Saturday, intelligence chief Tareq Abu Rajab was seriously wounded in an explosion in his Gaza office, and on Sunday, Palestinian security found a huge bomb on the road used by security commander Rashid Abu Shbak to drive to his office, an apparent assassination attempt.
Abu Shbak, a Fatah stalwart, has become a symbol of the conflict. Abbas appointed him to command three security forces nominally under the authority of the Hamas-controlled Interior Ministry. Hamas responded by deploying its own 3,000-strong militia made up of militants.
In Ramallah, seat of the Palestinian government in the West Bank, the second Israeli arrest raid in as many days was violent from the outset.
Palestinians spotted undercover Israeli forces in a Ford sedan near Manara Square in the center of the city, opened fire and threw rocks at the soldiers, Palestinian officials and the Israeli military said. The Israelis in the car and reinforcements brought in for the raid returned fire, killing four Palestinians and wounding more than 30.
Ambulances darted in and out of the melee, taking casualties to the hospital.
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