Bomb targets Palestinian PM Hamdallah’s convoy in rare Gaza visit
■ Palestinian intelligence chief Majid Faraj was also in the convoy
Gaza City, Palestinian Territories, March 13: A bomb blast targeted Palestinian prime minister Rami Hamdallah’s convoy during a rare visit to the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, leaving him unhurt but provoking outrage over what officials called an assassination attempt.
The attack is likely to further increase tensions between Hamas — which denied any involvement — and president Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah, with a reconciliation agreement between the two all but dead.
Palestinian intelligence chief Majid Faraj was also in the convoy but was not injured in the explosion, which occurred shortly after they entered the territory. At least six people were wounded, with none of their injuries believed to be life- threatening.
A security source in Gaza said the convoy was also fired on by unknown gunmen at the time of the explosion, before Hamas security forces sealed off the area. After the attack, Hamdallah briefly appeared at the opening of a wastewater treatment facility in Gaza before cutting short his visit and returning to the Israeli- occupied West Bank, where his government is based.
“It was a very wellplanned attempt. It was a roadside bomb about two metres into the ground,” Hamdallah said at his office upon his return.
A statement on official Palestinian media said Abbas considered it a “cowardly targeting” of Hamdallah’s convoy and held Hamas responsible. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
Radical Islamists opposed to Hamas also operate within the Gaza Strip and have regularly been behind unrest.
The Hamas interior ministry said they had arrested three suspects and begun an investigation. A statement from Hamas condemned the attack, saying it was done by the “same hands” responsible for the assassination of one senior Hamas figure, Mazen Faqha, and the attempted assassination of another last year.
Hamas blamed the killing of Faqha on Israel.
The second attack, an explosion targeting Hamas’s head of security in Gaza, is widely believed to have been the work of radical Islamists.
Hamas criticised Abbas’s accusation, saying it “achieved the goals of the criminals.”
Another senior official, Tawfiq Abu Naim, said “whoever who did this only serves the ( Israeli) occupation and is doing what the occupation demands.”
The explosion came a few hundred metres ( yards) after Hamdallah’s convoy crossed through the Palestinian Authority- run checkpoint into Hamas- controlled territory.
Two cars with blown- out windows were being removed from the scene of the explosion shortly afterwards, a correspondent reported. The visit came as reconciliation efforts between Hamas and Abbas’s Fatah party have faltered.