Unidentified gunmen shot dead a Muslim cleric after he delivered a sermon in the Gaza Strip on Friday calling for an end to fierce internal fighting between Hamas and Fatah, hospital officials and local residents said.
According to Reuters, the cleric, Sheikh Adel Nassar, who was in a car when the gunmen opened fire, was not affiliated to any faction. No group claimed responsibility for the shooting, which was reported after prayers at a mosque in the Maghazi refugee camp.
The cleric's shooting in central Gaza came hours after Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas said he and President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah had agreed to keep gunmen off Gaza's streets after clashes in which eight were killed.
Brushing aside Haniyeh's call for calm, Fatah issued a statement in Gaza: "Blood for blood and aggression for aggression ... and all the sons of the movement should retaliate to each aggression openly."
Additionally, members of Fatah's al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades threatened to assassinate Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar and Interior Minister Saeed Seyam of Hamas.
