A Hamas leader survived, on Tuesday at dawn, an assassination attempt after unknown assailants placed an explosive charge in his parked vehicle in Khan Younis refugee camp, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. The leader, who was not in the vehicle, was unharmed while two children were wounded in a nearby home.
The assassination attempt targeted Yousef Sarsour, and caused damage to several nearby homes. Two children were wounded and moved to the local, Nasser hospital.
Medical sources at Nasser hospital reported that the two children are in stable conditions, and that they were injured by shattered glass.
The Palestinian police and security forces have initiated a probe into the incident.
Sarsour said that he heard a ground-shaking explosion near his home, and initially thought it was an Israeli air strike.
He described the attack as a ‘cowardly crime that aims at harming civilians”, members of his family and his neighbors.
Hammad Al Raqab, Hamas spokesperson in Khan Younis, stated that Israel and its collaborators are behind the attack, and added that this attack aims at creating chaos and causing renewed internal clashes.
Sarsour is a local political leader of Hamas and a social figure. He was one of several Hamas political leaders who were deported to southern Lebanon in 1991.
