Three children killed in Gaza

Three children of a senior Palestinian intelligence officer were killed today in a drive-by shooting on a street crowded with schoolchildren, an attack that could ignite widespread factional fighting.

Gunmen pumped dozens of bullets into a car carrying the children of intelligence officer Baha Balousheh, a loyalist of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah Party.

A decade ago, Balousheh was a lead interrogator in a crackdown on the now-ruling Islamic militant Hamas movement.

Three of Balousheh’s children, ages 6 to 10, were killed, in addition to their driver, hospital officials said.

Four more people were wounded in the attack on Palestine Street, which is lined with nine schools.

Balousheh was not in the area.

As the shots rang out, children dropped to the ground or fled, screaming.

“I was walking with my young brother, Wael, who is 9, and we just crossed the street in order to take him to the school when shooting took place,” said 12-year-old Fadwa Nabulsi, still shaken by the violence.

Gaza has been plagued by factional violence in the past, with dozens killed and hundreds wounded.

But today’s attack on children was unprecedented and was likely to trigger widespread confrontations at a time when the lines between Hamas and Fatah have hardened.