GAZA CITY, 1 April 2006 — A top commander of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) linked to Fatah was killed when his car exploded yesterday in Gaza City, witnesses and security sources said. The sources identified the top leader as Khalil Al-Quqa, 44, known as “Abu Yousef.”
Witnesses and medical sources said that Al-Quqa’s car was hit by Israeli warplanes in the northern neighborhood of Gaza City on his way to a nearby mosque, but Israeli military sources denied involvement in the attack. An army spokesman said, “It was not us.”
Abu Abir, a spokesman of the PRC, told reporters that Al-Quqa was killed in an Israeli attack confirming that his group will retaliate as soon as possible and there will be no truce with the Israelis.
Earlier, Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz had ordered his soldiers and senior officers to operate against Palestinians including the PRC accusing it of launching rockets from Gaza into Israel.
Late Thursday, four Israelis were killed in a bombing near Kadomim settlement in the West Bank when a Palestinian belonging to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the armed wing of Fatah movement, detonated a bomb strapped to his body.
After the attack, Israeli occupation forces closed the area of the operation and launched a search campaign.
Hundreds of gunmen marched through the streets of Gaza City to protest the killing of Al-Quqa. The unrest illustrated the widening spiral of violence facing the new Hamas government, which has pledged to restore order in Gaza Strip and West Bank. Abu Abir said the Preventive Security Service had been trying to kill Al-Quqa for some time.
When Abu Abir called a news conference to discuss the killing, rival gunmen burst on the scene, sparking a shootout. Witnesses said the gunmen were from Preventive Security, an official security agency dominated by the rival Fatah movement.
— With input from agencies
