Israel on Mar 9 killed the leader of a Palestinian faction in a targeted attack on a car in the Gaza Strip.A second man also died in the blast, and a third was injured. The blast set a small metallic blue car ablaze. At least two of the victims were inside the vehicle when the explosion occurred, witnesses said. One of the dead was reported as Zuheir Al-Qessi, the head of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), which is an umbrella group that draws together activists from different factions. And the second dead man was Ahmed Al-Halani, who was said to be originally from the West Bank and freed from an Israeli jail last year as part of a prisoner swap deal to gain the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit; if confirmed, he would be the first of the 1,000 Palestinian prisoners freed in the deal to be killed by an Israeli strike. Al-Qessi was elected chief of the PRC last August after Israel killed his predecessor in an airstrike in the southern Gazan town of Rafah.
Israel Strikes Gaza, Kills 2
Israel on Mar 9 killed the leader of a Palestinian faction in a targeted attack on a car in the Gaza Strip.A second man also died in the blast, and a third was injured. The blast set a small metallic blue car ablaze.
