Gun men mow down 3 children in Gaza

Palestinian gunmen killed three young children of a senior Palestinian intelligence officer on Monday in a drive-by shooting in a street crowed with hundreds of school children, an unprecented attack that could ignite wide-spread factional fighting.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

In the attack the gunman pumped dozens of bullets into a car carrying the children of intelligence officer Baha Balousheh, a loyalistof Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah Movement. A decade ago, Balousheh was a lead interrogator in a crackdown on the now-ruling Islamic militant Hamas movement.

Three of Balousheh children, ranging from six to ten, and their driver were killed, hospital officials said. Four more people were wounded in the attack in Palestine Street, lined with nine schools. Baha Balousheh was not in the area.

As the shots rang out, children dropped to the ground or fled, screaming. Dozens of Palestinian police in the area where trying to calm the children and help them locate their parents. Hundreds of anxious parents rushed to Gaza City’s Shifa hospital to get word on their children.

Gaza has been plagued by factional violence in the past, with dozena of killed and hundreds of wounded. However, Monday’s direct attack on children was unprecented, and was likely to trigger widespread confrontations at a time when the lines between Hamas and Fatah have darkened.