22 March 2018•Update: 23 March 2018
By Nour Abu Aisha
GAZA CITY, Palestine
The prime suspect in a Jan. 13 assassination attempt on Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah was killed Thursday in an exchange of fire with Hamas-run security forces in the central Gaza Strip, according to Gaza’s Interior Ministry.
In a statement, the ministry said two security personnel -- along with a second suspect -- had been killed in the exchange.
“The prime suspect, Anas Abu Khoussa, was killed in the exchange, while an accomplice, Abdul-Hadi al-Ashhab, succumbed to injuries after being hospitalized,” the statement read, adding that a third accomplice had since been arrested.
The statement went on to say that two members of Gaza’s Hamas-run security services -- Ziad al-Hawajri and Hammad Abu Sweirih -- had also been killed.
On Wednesday evening, the Interior Ministry announced it had identified a "prime suspect" in a failed assassination bid on al-Hamdallah earlier this month.
On Jan. 13, al-Hamdallah's convoy struck a roadside bomb in Gaza's Beit Hanoun district during a visit by the prime minister to the Hamas-run coastal enclave.
Earlier this week, at a meeting of the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas blamed Hamas for the attempt on al-Hamdallah's life.
Hamas, which has governed the Gaza Strip since 2007, denied -- and denounced -- Abbas’s accusation.
