Hamas Officials: 11 dead in battle with Doghmush clan in Gaza

At least 40 wounded in battles raging since Monday overnight

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Hamas forces assaulted the compound of a heavily armed Gaza clan early Tuesday, sparking a fierce street battle that killed 11 people in fighting throughout the night, Hamas officials said. Two bystanders, including a young boy, were among the dead. Machine-gun fire and explosions were heard around the Gaza City neighborhood home to the Doghmush clan, a notorious family with links to both terror and criminal groups. Members of the clan were responsible for kidnapping a British Broadcasting Corp. journalist last year. Since violently taking over Gaza last year, Hamas has moved to establish order in Gaza's once-chaotic streets and eliminate groups who could threaten its rule. Eleven people died in early August in a clash between Hamas forces and another clan aligned with its Fatah rivals. Hamas launched the assault shortly after midnight, hours after a member of the Doghmush clan killed a policeman while resisting police. The fighting erupted after the clan refused to turn the man over, said Interior Ministry spokesman Ihab Ghussen, and continued for about nine hours. Eight members of the family and one policeman were killed in the fighting, along with the two bystanders, he said. The age of the boy was not immediately known. Forty people were wounded, he added. No immediate confirmation was available from the Doghmush clan. Earlier, the family posted an announcement on a Gaza Web site saying several of its members were hurt. "Explosions and shooting are coming from all directions. The sky is raining bullets, and my children are terrified and they are screaming," one local resident said as the fighting raged. A 55-year-old father of five, he gave his name only as Ziad because he did not want to draw the attention of the clan or of the authorities. The battle raged outside the house of a senior Hamas leader, Mahmoud Zahar, who lives in the same neighborhood. The fiercely independent and widely feared Doghmush clan includes members close to Hamas's Fatah opponents, as well as members of Islamic militias that have been allied with Hamas. Those gunmen took part in the capture of Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit in a cross-border raid in 2006 and others who seized BBC journalist Alan Johnston and held him for nearly four months last year. Gilad Schalit is still in captivity, more than two years since he was abducted.