Eleven people, including a police officer and a young girl, were killed in clashes between de facto government security forces and members of the Dughmush clan in Gaza on Tuesday morning.YNet adds:
A fierce gunbattle broke out after security forces attempted to arrest three members of the family. Medical sources said that 11 people were killed, contradicting an earlier report from the police that only four were killed.
Sources from police department confirmed that Jamil, Ibrahim and Sa’eb Doghmush were killed during the raid.
Twenty-two-year-old Sameh Mahmoud An-Naji, a member of the security forces, was killed, and an unknown number of others were injured.
Members of the Doghmush were reported to have been responsible for the kidnapping of BBC reporter Alan Johnston in 2007.
Eyewitnesses said that they saw body of a few months year old girl in Ash-Shifa hospital in Gaza who appeared to have “lost her head.” She is said to be daughter of Abu Al-Qassem Doghmush, the leader of the An-Nasser Brigades, and armed group close to Hamas.
Medical sources at Ash-Shifa hospital confirmed that there are a “large number” policemen were injured.
Shahwan described the campaign as “successful” adding that it included other fugitives accused of killing a policeman and other crimes.
The police announced that they seized a explosives and weapons from the building they raided.
Among those injured in the exchanges of fire was Army of Islam leader Mumtaz Doghmush, who was involved in kidnapping of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit. His brother was killed.Yesterday, the UN "Human Rights Commission" declared that the accidental 2006 Israeli shelling of Beit Hanoun might be considered a "war crime." Don't hold your breath to hear them say anything negative about the use of mortars and rockets against a house with a family in it, decapitating a baby girl.
My "self-death count" of the number of Palestinian Arabs violently killed by their own actions this year climbs to 176.
UPDATE: To be fair, the Doghmushes are hardly innocent. According to the usually anti-Hamas Firas Press, the Doghmushes fired rockets and mortars from their compound towards Mahmoud al-Zahhar's house in Gaza City during the fighting as well. So both sides have wanton disregard for civilian lives.
Not that this is a surprise.
UPDATE 2: PCHR lists two children killed, a 1 year old boy and a 16-year old. Nothing about a girl. For now, I'm assuming two children.