HAMAS EXECUTES GAZA AID THEFT CLAN CHIEF
Crime group’s leader ‘was talking to Israel’
HAMAS fighters have executed the leader of a powerful Gazan clan that has a history of organised crime and arms dealing.
The unnamed man was head of the armed Doghmush group, which is linked to al Qaeda and leads the Army of Islam terrorist organisation.
Sources revealed he and two others were killed in a family compound. He was thought to have stolen humanitarian aid, and been in touch with Israel.
It was Doghmush that kidnapped and held British BBC journalist Alan Johnston for 16 weeks in 2007.
The group was also involved in the capture of Israel Defence Force soldier Gilad Shalit in 2006.
The killings came days after Hamas warned anyone communicating with Israel would be punished, as would anyone stealing incoming aid.
Palestinian medics have accused Israeli forces of an attack near an aid
distribution point in northern Gaza, killing 20 and wounding 155 others.
The Israeli military said Palestinian gunmen were the ones to open fire and that none of its forces, who were securing a convoy of 31 aid trucks, fired towards the crowd or the convoy.
Some of those in the crowd were run over by the trucks, it said.
Yesterday, a ship carrying 200 tons of aid drew near to the coast of Gaza in a mission to establish a sea route from Cyprus, trying to deliver food and medicine to those desperately in need.
A quarter of Gaza’s population is starving, according to the UN.
Residents of Rafah were left to sift through the rubble of their obliterated homes after Israeli air strikes, which the IDF claims killed Hamas leader Muhammad Abu Hasna. A UN aid worker is also said to have died.
Israeli attacks on Thursday flattened buildings in the city of Khan Yunis.