Unidentified gunmen killed three sons of a Palestinian intelligence official loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas in Gaza on Monday, firing at a car as it dropped the boys at school, police and hospital officials said. An adult bystander was also killed in the attack in Gaza City, which came amid growing tension between Hamas, the governing militant group, and Abbas's more moderate Fatah.Angry mourners firing automatic weapons later stormed into the parliament compound during a funeral for the boys, who were aged between 6 and 9. There were no reports of injuries. Some 2,000 people took part in the funeral, including the boys' father, Colonel Baha Balousha, who was heavily guarded. Relatives carried his three sons in their arms. The bodies were wrapped in white sheets.
Balousha, who was not in the car when it was attacked, is a senior intelligence official close to Abbas. Gunmen tried to kill him in Gaza in September, one of several attacks on intelligence officials loyal to Abbas in the strip this year. Abbas called the shooting "a condemned, ugly and inhumane crime, carried out by a bunch of bastards."
He and Palestinian Prime Minister and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who arrived in Sudan on Monday, said they had urged the interior minister to take all measures to find the perpetrators. The car taking the children to school was peppered with bullet holes and blood stains covered the seats. Two school bags, one green and the other blue, lay inside.