Fatah-Hamas shootout during funeral

Thursday, 23 August 2001 13:10 (ET)

Fatah-Hamas shootout during funeral

TEL AVIV, Israel, Aug. 23 (UPI) -- Members of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement Thursday engaged in an hourlong shootout with militants from the Islamic Hamas movement interrupting a funeral in Gaza, reliable Palestinian and Israeli sources told United Press International.

A knowledgeable source said at least three people were injured when the battle erupted during the funeral of Bilal al-Ghoul, who was killed in an Israeli helicopter missile attack late Wednesday south of Gaza City.

Fatah and Hamas members each claimed al-Ghoul as being a member of their respective groups. The argument degenerated into exchanges of gunfire, with mourners leaving al-Ghoul's body, draped in a Palestinian flag, in the street for an hour as they ran for cover. An Israeli source said hand grenades were hurled as well.

As an 8,000-person procession moved through central Gaza, accompanied by several hundred armed men, Hamas mourners chanted slogans depicting him as one of their activists.

"Bilal is a Hamas hero," they said, according to one eye witness. "And then the Fatah members started saying, 'He is not a member of Hamas, he is our martyr.'"

Israeli security sources told UPI that Bilal Al-Ghoul was the son and bodyguard of Adnan Al-Ghoul who engineered several attacks on Hamas' behalf.

However Fatah said the dead man was one of theirs. They noted he belonged to the Preventive Security Service that is a Fatah stronghold.

Security forces intervened and the groups agreed to continue the funeral and later argue about which group Bilal al-Ghoul belonged to, the sources said. -- Copyright 2001 by United Press International. All rights reserved.

-- Anonymous, August 23, 2001