PALI CIVIL WAR KILLS 5, INJURES 40 OVER WEEKEND

Five killed in clashes between Gaza clans (Haaretz)
Five Palestinians were killed and more than 40 injured in clashes between two clans in Khan Yunis in the worst outbreak of violence in the region since the signing of the Mecca agreement two weeks ago.

The Gaza fighting began Friday after a 70-year-old man was caught in the cross-fire and killed. Yesterday morning armed men of the Kawara clan shot and killed Mohammed al-Ghralban, 27, a senior activist in the Hamas military wing. He was shot in retaliation for the death of a Kawara clan member in clashes with the Hamas military wing last month. Three more Palestinians died in the ensuing gunfire, two from the Kawara clan.

Gaza's Shifa Hospital reported that four of the wounded were in critical condition.

Fatah and Hamas avoided recriminations for the violence two weeks after their Mecca accord, but a statement by the Hamas military wing discussed what it called elements behind the Kawara clan.

Meanwhile, early yesterday armed Palestinians attacked the house of Suleiman Khader, a colonel in the Palestinian national security force. The door of Khader's home was blown up and two residents were injured.

In the West Bank, Israel Defense Forces soldiers uncovered an explosives lab yesterday in Nablus, operating out of an apartment in the central market, the Casbah. Five pipe bombs were found as well as other explosives, which were neutralized by sappers.