One report claimed one of the vehicles burst into flames, though a later report claimed no injuries in the attack.
Hamas blamed Fatah for the attack, but Fatah denied carrying it out. Hamas officials say the gunmen were relatives of a Fatah man killed in clashed with Hamas a few weeks ago.
Hamas officials also said they did not believe the shooters intended to kill Haniyeh, as his car was not targeted.
In another incident of internal PA violence, PA security forces loyal to Fatah fought Friday with armed Hamas men near Gaza’s Nusseirat slums. One Hamas member was stabbed and moderately wounded.
Prior to the shooting, Haniyeh had just declared in a packed mosque that Hamas would thwart any attempt by PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) to dissolve the Islamic government set up by Hamas. "All you have here are proposals aimed at nothing but the removal of Hamas from power,” he said. “The wheels of history will not go backward.”
Haniyeh added that Abbas has no legal right to call early elections or form any alternative “emergency” government.
Abbas Moves to Unite PLO’s Fatah
Meanwhile, Abbas is seeking internal unity in the face of Hamas’s increased public muscle-flexing and the reported streaming of arms to Hamas members in Judea and Samaria. He appointed retired PLO strongman Ismail Jaber to head the group’s armed militia in that region.
Abbas hopes to thereby prevent disgruntled Fatah veterans from deposing him, as well as attempt to maintain the balance of power in PA-controlled areas in Judea and Samaria. Hamas has deployed thousands of armed men in Gaza who are loyal to its movement. The armed men have thus displaced many of the members of the Fatah-controlled official PA police force, who were appointed and paid by Fatah and the PLO. Hamas official Mahmoud A-Zahar said Friday that Hamas intends on implementing such a model in Judea and Samaria as well.
Hamas officials say that Iran has promised to train its militias.
Although Jaber is considered a relic of Yasser Arafat’s corrupt appointees, he is influential among Fatah’s terrorist wings. He was forced to resign after it was revealed that he listed thousands of fictitious names on his payrolls and pocketed the money himself.
Abbas Under Fire From Own Militia
Members of Abbas’s own armed militia fired their weapons in the air in Gaza City’s marketplace Saturday, causing a stampede. The men said they were protesting the fact that they have not been paid in months. Other members blocked the roads leading to Abbas’s residence with burning tires.