Hamas security chief injured in Gaza car bombing

Gaza City:  A car bombing yesterday wounded the Hamas security head in the Gaza Strip, as the Islamist group and a rival Palestinian faction are trying to implement a thorny reconciliation deal.
The explosion that wounded Tawfiq Abu Naim was immediately branded by the Hamas interior ministry as “a failed assassination attempt”.
Hamas chief Ismail Haniyah pointed the finger of blame at Israel. Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah movement signed a reconciliation accord with Hamas on October 12, aimed at ending a bitter 10-year split.
Under the deal, the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority is to resume control of Gaza —which Hamas seized in a near civil war with Fatah in 2007 — by December 1.
“Tawfiq Abu Naim, director general of the internal security forces, survived a failed assassination attempt after his car was blown up in the Nusseirat refugee camp,” the interior ministry statement said.
“He was moderately wounded and was treated in hospital,” said the statement by spokesman Iyad Al Bozum.
The ministry did not give details of the source of the explosion in central Gaza, and there was no immediate claim of responsibility. Checkpoints were set up across the coastal Palestinian enclave.
“The security services immediately began investigations to discover the circumstances of the incident and to catch the perpetrators,” Bozum said.
Another ministry spokesman, Fawzi Barhum, called the attack a “cowardly act carried out by the enemies of the Palestinian people” aimed at undermining the reconciliation deal. Haniyah’s office released a picture showing him visiting a bandaged but smiling Abu Naim at Al Shifa Hospital.
“Whoever was behind this crime, we think it is the occupier and its followers who are responsible,” he said, the term “occupier” commonly used for Israel. “Anyone who believes that this criminal operation can alter our resolve to achieve Palestinian national reconciliation is wrong,” Haniya added.
Abu Naim is known to be close to Sinwar who has adamantly rejected any attempt to disarm Hamas.
“No one in the universe can disarm us. On the contrary, we will continue to have the power to protect our citizens,” Sinwar said a week ago during a speech to young people that was provided to AFP.