Palestinian Killing A Sign of Bad Blood

Washington Post ^ | Thursday, October 10, 2002 | John Ward Anderson

[Conagher]

GAZA CITY, Oct. 9 -- In a territory that reverberates with nightly gun battles, in a city full of weapons and armed men in various uniforms, the checkpoint in central Gaza City must have looked like any other as the car carrying Col. Rageh Abu Lehiya approached. Hardly something to worry about for one of Gaza's top Palestinian police commanders.

But when Abu Lehiya's car pulled to a stop, someone yelled, "That's him!" and the 20 uniformed men operating the checkpoint sprang into action, according to Palestinian police and other Gaza officials.

The men were members of the Islamic Resistance Movement, or Hamas, disguised as Palestinian police. They ordered Abu Lehiya's driver and two bodyguards out of the car, then drove him to a crowded street, where they shot him more than 10 times, a Palestinian police statement said. Afterward, they abused his body and fired their weapons into the air in celebration, shouting that they had avenged the deaths of three people allegedly killed by officers under Abu Lehiya's command during a Hamas street demonstration last year.

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© 2002 The Washington Post Company

[Conagher]

Civilization: a foreign notion to Palestinians.

[weikel]

Maybe if they start fighting each other hard enough they'll have less time to kill jews in pizza parlors.