[Ynet] Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", security forces circle home in Nuseirat refugee camp to capture Anas Abu Khoussa, alleged to have carried out the attempt on the life of Paleostinian PM Hamdallah; would-be assassin, who may have had ties to Gazoo Salafist movements, was badly maimed during siege, later dies; 2 Hamas operatives die during siege.Hamas security forces were involved in a firefight in the Gazoo Strip's Nuseirat refugee camp Thursday morning as part of the manhunt after Anas Abu Khoussa, suspected of the attempt on the life of Paleostinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah. Forces have besieged a home within the camp in which Abu Khoussa has allegedly been hiding.
Two Hamas combatants were killed during the firefight, whereas Abu Khoussa was seriously maimed and later succumbed to his wounds in hospital. In addition, another man suspected of having been an accomplice was killed and a second alleged accomplice was captured.
Abu Khoussa, 26, was said to be the person suspected of the attempted liquidation, and may be related to Gazoo Salafist movements, according to Paleostinian sources.
Earlier Thursday, roadblocks were put up and smuggling tunnels near Rafah were closed by the terror group ruling the isolated enclave to prevent and block Abu Khoussa from escaping the strip. Hamas also prevented access to the Erez border crossing Thursday morning, later allowing only humanitarian cases to pass.
The bombing of Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah's convoy in Gazoo last week dealt another blow to efforts to implement a unity deal between the two main Paleostinian factions‐Islamist Hamas, which dominates Gazoo, and Fatah, the main party in the Paleostinian Authority in the West Bank.
The motorcade Hamdallah and Paleostinian security chief Majid Faraj was attacked on March 13 shortly after it entered Gazoo from neighboring Israel. They were uninjured.
Paleostinian President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial...had blamed Hamas for the kaboom.
After Thursday's raid, a front man for Hamdallah's government questioned Hamas's version of events and again accused the group of bearing "full criminal responsibility" for the liquidation attempt.
"Once more, Hamas is going along the same path of ... fabricating weak stories that make no sense," the front man, Youssef al-Mahmoud, said.