West Bank – Local Hamas Leader Shot Dead

West Bank – Three masked men have shot and killed a Hamas leader as he left a mosque in the West Bank, a day after a rival Palestinian faction threatened to kill senior Hamas members.

The shooting comes amid a growing power struggle between the ruling Hamas movement and the Fatah faction of President Mahmoud Abbas. At least 12 people were killed and more than 100 wounded earlier this week in internal clashes.

Witnesses said the gunmen jumped out of a passing vehicle and shot Mohammed Odeh, 37, as he left a mosque in Hableh, a village near the town of Qalqilya, and then sped off.  They said the vehicle had Israeli licence plates but gave no other details. Vehicles with such plates are not uncommon in some major Palestinian cities in the occupied West Bank.
The Israeli military denied involvement in the shooting in the village, which lies northwest of the main West Bank city of Ramallah.