Asia

Home page

Asia

Gaza police besiege suspects in Italian’s slaying

19 April 2011 23:48 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Hamas police besieged a house in Gaza where al-Qaida-inspired militants implicated in the slaying of an Italian activist were holed up on Tuesday and traded gunfire with the suspects after they refused to surrender, an official said, APA reports quoting news.yahoo.com website.
The siege was part of Hamas’ manhunt for the killers of Vittorio Arrigoni, who had been in Gaza since 2008 helping local Palestinians. The 36-year-old’s body was found on Friday, a day after he was kidnapped and after a video showing, him beaten and blindfolded surfaced online.
Hamas forces surrounded the house in Gaza on Tuesday afternoon, calling on the men inside to surrender but were answered with gunfire, which prompted police to shoot back, a police official said.
Hamas then stormed the backyard, arresting the owner of the house and his two sons while the suspects remained inside and the gun battle continued, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Five Hamas police were wounded in the gunfight and a girl, caught in the crossfire as she tried to flee to her house nearby, was shot in the leg.
As the shootout dragged on, dozens of masked Hamas members secured positions in the surrounding farmland and on nearby rooftops overlooking the suspects’ hideout. Others patrolled on motorcycles as police sealed off roads into the neighborhood.
Several relatives of the gunmen as well as a known Salafist preacher arrived at the scene to plead with the suspects to surrender.
In the video of Arrigoni, a group identifying itself as "Monotheism and Holy War" demanded the release of two of its leaders, held by Hamas, in exchange for the hostage.
Hamas said Arrigoni was strangled, but it has not allowed an independent expert to see the body.
The case was the first kidnap-slaying of a foreigner in the Gaza Strip since Hamas took power in the tiny Mediterranean coastal territory in 2007. It highlighted the challenge that the Iran-backed Hamas â€” a group with a militant Islamist ideology that is considered a terrorist organization by the U.S., the European Union and others â€” faces from smaller factions in Gaza that see it as too pragmatic.
Hamas says the suspects holed up in the Gaza house, including a former Hamas policeman and a Jordanian activist, belong to a small extremist Islamic group inspired by al-Qaida.
Arrigoni was given a symbolic funeral on Monday in Gaza, after which his body was taken to neighboring Egypt, and then to Italy for burial.
Radical and ultraconservative Islamic groups in Gaza that belong to the Muslim Salafi sect have created a headache for the strip’s militant Hamas rulers. Some groups are suspected of being behind a series of bombings of Internet cafes and music stores in Gaza, which they view as contrary to their perception of strict Islamic values.
In 2007, Salafi militants from the "Army of Islam" kidnapped BBC reporter Alan Johnston and held him for a few months before he was freed.
The same group was involved in the abduction of Israeli soldier Sgt. Gilad Schalit, who was captured in a cross-border raid in 2006.
Hamas still holds Schalit, demanding the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, including many convicted of murdering Israeli civilians, in exchange for his freedom. Hamas have banned the Red Cross from seeing Schalit and little is known about his condition.