Security Chaos and Proliferation of Small Arms
Armed Personal and Clan Clashes
Field Update
14 September 2006
3 Injured, 2 Seriously, in 2 Incidents of Armed Clan Clashes in Gaza City and Rafah
On Wednesday, 13 September 2005, four lawyers came under fire from gunmen on the backdrop of clan disputes in gaza City. Two lawyers were seriously injures in the incident. A resident of Rafah was injured in a clan dispute in the city.
PCHR’s preliminary investigation indicates that at approximately 12:40 on Wednesday gunmen in two vehicles intercepted the jeep belonging to the lawyer Abdel Karim Shubair (48) near El-Jala’ Building in the center of Gaza City. There were three other lawyers in the jeep. The gunmen got out of their vehicles and fired heavily at the jeep, especially at the back seat where the lawyers Samer Mustafa Ahmad (31) and Shadi Rabah Abed (25) were sitting. Shubair and the lawyer Ahmad Abu Aqlein were in the front seats. The shooting resulted in the injury of Samer Ahmad with two bullets in the head and mouth. Shadi Abed was injured by two bullets in the left shoulder and left foot. The injured lawyers are residents of Gaza City.
When Shubair tried to take the injured lawyers to the hospital in the jeep, the gunmen fired several bullets at the tires and punctured them. The injured were later taken to Shifa Hospital, where their injuries were listed as serious.
Shubair informed PCHR’s fieldworker that the incident occurred on the backdrop of a clan dispute between members of Abed clan. He indicated that the target of the attack was Shadi Abed.
At approximately 18:00 on the same day, Abed Ahmad D’heir (24) was admitted into Mohammad Yousef El-Najjar Hospital in Rafah suffering from a moderate gunshot wound in the right foot. PCHR’s preliminary investigation indicates that a gunman fired at D’heir as he was in a taxi near Awda Square in Rafah on the backdrop of a clan dispute.
PCHR is concerned over the continued falling of victims due to use of arms in personal and clan disputes, which is a part of the security chaos plaguing the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The Centre calls upon the Palestinian National Authority, represented by the Attorney-General, to seriously investigate these crimes and bring the perpetrators to justice.
