MIDDLE EAST:Assailants gunned down a Muslim preacher known for his anti-Hamas views yesterday, witnesses said, moments after he left a mosque where he had delivered a sermon criticising the Islamic group's role in a recent wave of Gaza violence.
The killing came as thousands of Palestinian mourners marched through Gaza City carrying the bodies of seven Fatah men killed in a stand-off with Hamas.
Yesterday's gunfight was the bloodiest single battle in weeks of factional fighting, and Fatah said it was suspending talks with Hamas until the assailants are brought to justice.
Adel Nasar (50), a mosque preacher, was shot as he got into a car in the Mughazi refugee camp in central Gaza, according to witnesses.
Fatah accused Hamas of the crime. "Sheikh Nasar was killed after he came out of the mosque, where he criticised Hamas after the crime committed by some of its gunmen yesterday," the group said in a statement.
Hamas officials said they were investigating the killing. Sheikh Nasar's assailants pulled up to him in a white car and sped away after the shooting, witnesses said.
The sheikh was not openly affiliated to any political party, but he was a well-known figure in the refugee camp and often preached against Hamas.
Shortly before the shooting, he had criticised yesterday's bloody attack on the home of Col Muhammad Ghayeb, a top Fatah official in northern Gaza, witnesses said.
The political tensions between Fatah and Hamas erupted into violence last month after three young sons of a Fatah security commander were killed in a drive-by shooting. In all, more than two dozen people have died in the infighting.
The latest violence prompted an urgent meeting early yesterday between Mr Abbas and prime minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas. Although the two sides agreed to pull back their forces, the meeting failed to cool raging tensions.
In Jebaliya in northern Gaza, thousands of people carried the bodies of Col Ghayeb and six bodyguards killed with him in a funeral procession held in pouring rain.
Dozens of Fatah gunmen joined the march, firing in the air and calling for vengeance against Hamas.
Echoing the mood on the streets, a Fatah statement accused interior minister Said Siyam's special security service of being behind yesterday's assault and called for revenge attacks on the killers.
As interior minister, Mr Siyam oversees Hamas's official militia, widely known as the "executive force". - (AP)