Gaza City, August 16: The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas on Sunday stated that the Gaza Strip was fully under its control following recent clashes with an opposition pro-al-Qaeda group, Jihad al- Salafi. According to a local Palestinian human rights organization, the number of people killed in Friday’s clashes totalled 28, with more than 120 injured.
Six unarmed civilians were among those killed in the fighting in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, it said.
The Hamas Ministry of Interior on Saturday confirmed a death toll at least 22 people.
It remains unclear whether the leader of Jihad al-Salafi, 47-year- old Abdel Latif Moussa, killed himself with an explosives belt or was shot dead by Hamas fighters.
Hamas clamped down on the jihadist group when Moussa announced the establishment of a theocracy in Gaza and demanded that Hamas impose strict Islamic law in the salient.
The clashes were the bloodiest inter-Palestinian violence since the takeover of the Gaza Strip by Hamas in June 2007.
–Agencies