Date: 11 Dec 17:52:34
From: yo yo ma
Subject: OT: Hamas sends message to Abu Mazen.....
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061211/ap_on_re_mi_ea/palestinians_school_shooting
LETS GIVE THEM A STATE! YEAH!!!
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Palestinian gunmen killed three young sons of a senior
Palestinian intelligence officer Monday, pumping dozens of bullets into their
car as it passed through a street crowded with schoolchildren in an apparent
botched assassination attempt that could ignite widespread factional fighting.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the drive-by attack, which
left the schoolbags and a small plastic bag with a sandwich covered in blood.
"I have no words. Words stop at the extent of this crime," the boys' father,
Baha Balousheh, told The Associated Press. "I am a father who has lost his
children."
Senior officials in the intelligence service, which is loyal to the
http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news/?p=Fatah Party of President Mahmoud
Abbas, blamed the Islamic militant group Hamas for the shooting. Balousheh, a
Fatah member, was a lead interrogator in a crackdown on Hamas a decade ago.
Hamas denied involvement and denounced the bloodshed.
While dozens have been killed in Gaza's escalating lawlessness since Hamas
defeated Fatah in January parliamentary elections, the death of the children was
especially shocking and was likely to trigger widespread confrontations at a
time Hamas and Fatah were at loggerheads over the creation of a national unity
government.
At midday, thousands of angry Fatah supporters joined a mass funeral procession
for the boys that snaked through the streets of Gaza City. Hundreds of Fatah
security officers fired their rifles in the air. Fatah activists burned tires,
blocked roads and shut down the city's commercial market in protest.
Fatah parliament members issued a statement calling on Abbas to dismiss the
Hamas government, "which is pushing us with its policies and programs to civil
war."
Abdel Karim Kahlout, Gaza's mufti or top Islamic authority, issued a religious
ruling calling for the death sentence against the killers.
"I ask the rulers to carry out an execution against the killers. No punishment
is acceptable but execution," he said.
In the attack, gunmen in two vehicles riddled the car carrying the children with
some 60 bullets, Palestinian security officials said. Balousheh's three sons
Osama, 9, Ahmed, 6, and Salam, 3 were killed, in addition to an adult,
hospital officials said. Balousheh was not in the car.
The car was soaked in blood. A child's backpack, emblazoned with cartoon
characters and the word "Friend," lay on the front seat, covered in blood.
Another schoolbag was in the back.
Four more people were wounded in the attack on Palestine Street, which is lined
with nine schools. The attack sent children in the area running for cover, some
dropped to the ground, others fled in panic.
"
We saw fire coming from one car. We started screaming and children started
running," said Fadwa Nablus, 12, who had been walking to school with her
9-year-old brother.
Hours after the attack, black smoke hovered over the schools.
"This is an ugly and inhuman crime perpetrated by a bunch of lowlifes," Abbas
said at his
http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news/?p=West+Bank office in Ramallah. "We
condemn it vehemently."
During the funeral procession, mourners shouted "God is great" amid the sound of
gunfire. Balousheh arrived surrounded by bodyguards, wiping his eyes as he tried
not to cry.
His wife, Linda, was dressed in black as she received mourners at their house.
She choked back tears when she looked at pictures of her sons the couple's
only children.
"What did the 3-year-old do or see in his life to deserve this?" she asked.
She said her husband was deeply attached to his sons. "Whoever did this knew how
to get to him," she said.
The three dead boys, still wearing their school uniforms, were carried by family
members at a mosque. One boy had 10 bullet holes in his head, according to an AP
reporter who saw the body.
The bodies were then wrapped in Fatah flags and taken to a cemetery. The nearby
headquarters of Hamas' militia remained empty during the ceremony. Officials
said they wanted to avoid further tensions.
Security officials said they believed the shooting was an attempt to assassinate
Balousheh, noting that the car's windows were tinted, blocking a view of the
passengers. Gunmen had twice before tried to kill Balousheh.
"Palestinian security has opened an investigation into the incident, which we
consider the ugliest" in the growing chaos in Gaza, the officials said in a
statement.
The Hamas-controlled Interior Ministry, which is responsible for security,
promised a speedy investigation.
However, a senior intelligence officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said
he believed Hamas was behind the attack.
In a statement, the intelligence service stopped just short of accusing Hamas,
saying the shooting was the latest in a series of attacks on intelligence
officers that the service has blamed on the Islamic group and its allies.
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum condemned the attack as an "awful, ugly crime
against innocent children." He said the assailants were undermining Palestinian
interests by creating chaos and confusion.
The shooting came a day after gunmen opened fire on the motorcade of Interior
Minister Said Siyam of Hamas. Siyam's car was not hit and there were no
injuries.
An Abbas aide, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, said he was concerned the
attack will lead to a large-scale confrontation. "If this continues, it will
lead to our worst nightmare, internal fighting," Erekat said.
Earlier this month, Abbas announced that talks on forming a unity government
between Hamas and Fatah had broken down. Last weekend, he raised the possibility
of calling early elections, drawing angry protests by Hamas, which said he does
not have the authority to dissolve the Hamas-dominated parliament
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