Militants Kill Palestinian Police Official

Islamic militants kidnapped and killed a Palestinian police official in Gaza on Monday, prompting some of the worst street fighting among Palestinians since the start of the uprising against Israel two years ago.

By nightfall, five Palestinians, including the police colonel, had been killed in the fighting between Palestinian police and members of the radical Hamas movement. Combined with a predawn raid by the Israeli army against Hamas in which 14 Palestinians were killed, it made for one of the deadliest and most chaotic days in the Gaza Strip in months.

The raid, in which the army fired machine guns on a hospital and used a combat helicopter to fire into a Palestinian crowd, drew widespread criticism from the diplomatic community and especially strong language from U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who warned of the danger of escalation.

Annan was “particularly concerned by reports that a missile from an Israeli helicopter gunship was fired into a crowd of civilians in reckless disregard of the obligation under international law to protect the civilian population,” said a statement read by Annan’s spokesman, Fred Eckhard. “Such actions have no legal or moral justification,” he said, calling on Israelis and Palestinians to “halt all violent and provocative acts.”

“We are deeply troubled,” State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters in Washington. “It’s very important that Israeli forces do their utmost to act in a manner that avoids harm to civilians and humanitarian facilities.”

The surge in violence could be a harbinger of rising tensions as the United States threatens a military campaign against Iraq. It came near the one-year anniversary of an anti-U.S. rally in Gaza City in support of terrorist leader Osama bin Laden at which two Islamic militants were killed in a clash with Palestinian police.

The Palestinian colonel killed Monday, Rajeh abu Lehiya, was the head of the riot police, and his slaying apparently was revenge exacted by Hamas-affiliated family members of one of the victims from last year.

Police said Hamas militants disguised as police set up a fake checkpoint in Gaza City and tricked Abu Lehiya and his bodyguards into stopping. The entourage was then driven to a Hamas-controlled neighborhood, where Abu Lehiya was shot. Shortly afterward, hundreds of people in the Nusseirat refugee camp held a celebration in front of the house of Yusuf Akel, a 21-year-old Hamas activist killed during last year’s riot.

“We implemented, thank God, the sentence of death for the killer who was responsible for martyring so many people to satisfy his masters, the Jews and the Americans,” read a statement distributed by Imad Akel, brother of the late Hamas activist.

Hamas is the most powerful of the Islamic political movements in the Palestinian territories and is blamed for many of the suicide bombings and other attacks against Israelis. On Monday, the group denied any involvement in the colonel’s killing, saying it was a matter of “family revenge.”

“Hamas will still work to maintain Palestinian national unity and to put an end to any kind of differences,” spokesman Abdulaziz Rantisi told reporters.

But in a region where tribal and political loyalties are easily blurred, the Palestinian police appeared to be retaliating against Hamas loyalists Monday. Clashes broke out when Palestinian police tried to arrest Hamas members who they believed were involved in the slaying.

The intra-Palestinian violence reflected the waning power of Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, who until last week was held under virtual house arrest by the Israelis at his West Bank headquarters in Ramallah.

“Hamas is getting stronger in opposition to the Palestinian Authority,” said Brig. Gen. Israel Ziv, commander of the Israeli army’s Gaza division.

During a briefing at an army base at the Kissufim crossing into the Gaza Strip, Ziv defended the raid in the city of Khan Yunis, which he described as a Hamas stronghold. He said the army was trying to arrest Hamas militants and destroy weapons factories.

Palestinians said most of the 14 people killed during the raid, which began at 2:30 a.m., were unarmed civilians. They said that many people emerged from their homes after they believed the raid was over simply to inspect the damage and that they were fired on by the combat helicopter. The Israeli army denied that, saying the crowd was armed and was trying to prevent the army’s retreat.

The army acknowledged that it had mistakenly killed 50-year-old Raheema Hassam Salama, the mother of one of the suspected Hamas activists it was seeking. Army officials also acknowledged firing on Nasser Hospital, the main hospital in Khan Yunis, where the wounded were taken. They said troops were returning fire from nearby.

There were no Israeli casualties during the raid.

The raid was filmed from above by an unmanned drone, and pressure is building for Israel to release the images.