Hamas Says Official 'Assassinated' at Damascus Yarmuk Camp
A medic from Hamas was killed in the Yarmuk refugee camp south of the Syrian capital Damascus on Monday, the Palestinian Islamist movement said.
The movement said in a statement that it "mourns the death of the jihadist brother, the martyr, Yehya Hurani, a leader in the Hamas movement."
Hurani was killed in "a cowardly assassination... while on his way to perform his humanitarian duty at the Palestine Clinic in the Yarmuk camp."
A Palestinian source at the camp, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he had died of gunshot wounds and accused the al-Nusra Front, al-Qaida's Syrian affiliate, of assassinating him.
Others blamed the Free Syrian Army.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group also reported the killing. It said Hurani worked in the medical field and did not take up arms in the country's conflict.
Hurani's death was not the first time Yarmuk's medical staff have been subject to violence, including assassinations and kidnappings.
According to Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman, internal power struggles in Yarmuk have led to violence, including clashes weeks ago between Nusra and Aknaf Beit Maqdis, a group loyal to Hamas.
Abdel Rahman said members of the extremist Islamist State group were also present in the camp and had kidnapped the head of a local relief organization, demanding food parcels in exchange for his release.
About 18,000 people live in Yarmuk, which has been besieged by regime forces for more than a year. Its residents suffer from malnutrition and lack of proper medical care, which have led to roughly 200 deaths.
Hamas' relationship with the Damascus regime has been strained since the group supported anti-regime protests at the beginning of Syria's conflict in 2011.
The Palestinian group moved its headquarters out of Damascus and to the Qatari capital in 2012.
Source: Agence France Presse
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