Wed 28 August 2019:
The Gaza Strip was on a “state of alert” on Wednesday after explosions killed three policemen in the Palestinian enclave in apparent suicide attacks.
The police officers died in “two explosions targeting police checkpoints” late on Tuesday, the interior ministry in the Hamas-controlled coastal territory said in a statement.
Such attacks on Hamas, which has the most powerful armed apparatus in the enclave, are rare.
An interior ministry spokesman, Eyad al-Bozom, said security forces were making progress in their pursuit of those behind the explosions, but he did not disclose further details.
“The sinful hands that carried out this crime will not escape punishment,” said Bozom.
The first blast destroyed a motorcycle as it passed a police checkpoint, witnesses said. Two police officers were killed and a third Palestinian wounded. It was not immediately clear if the riders were among the casualties.
The second explosion less than an hour later killed one officer and wounded several people at a police checkpoint elsewhere in the city, the interior ministry said.
Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh said Gaza can “absorb” such incidents.
“We are certain things will be controlled and all sides involved in these bombings will be held accountable,” he said in a statement.
Hamas – which took over Gaza in a 2007 civil war with the forces of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas – has at times faced internal opposition from more hardline fighters aligned with al-Qaeda or Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS).
A source familiar with the investigation told AFP news agency a group in Gaza that sympathises with ISIL was suspected.
Palestinian officials blamed Israel for the blasts.
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