The New York Times · 7 April 1995

CP-1995-017

Gaza Arabs Dispute Origin Of Sunday's Mystery Blast

By JOEL GREENBERG

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Transcribed from the clipping

JERUSALEM, April 6 — A mysterious explosion in Gaza that killed a senior Muslim militant and several other Palestinians on Sunday has set off a contest of credibility between the Palestinian Authority and its chief rival, the Islamic group Hamas.

In a stream of public statements and leaflets this week, both sides have offered conflicting explanations of how the explosion occurred, their debate growing into a war of words to win over ordinary Gazans angered by the carnage in a crowded neighborhood. Each side has tried to use the blast to discredit the other.

The authority says that explosives accidentally went off in a Hamas hideout used to manufacture bombs, and accuses Hamas of reckless disregard for human life in setting up the bomb factory in the middle of a residential area. Hamas calls the blast an assassination carried out by Israel in collaboration with the authority.

Israel has denied any involvement, and many Gazans seem skeptical of the Hamas claims. But Hamas has mobilized thousands of its supporters to convince public opinion that this explosion was a conspiracy.

On Wednesday, it organized a mass demonstration at the scene of the blast in the poor Sheik Radwan neighborhood of Gaza, a Hamas stronghold where protesters vowed revenge and gunmen fired into the air. The Palestinian police have waged their own information campaign.

On Wednesday they arrested a Gaza journalist who published a report suggesting that the explosion may have been planned. The journalist, Taher al-Nunu of An Nahar newspaper, quoted Palestinian civil defense officials as saying the blast could have been set off by a time bomb. The Civil Defense, an arm of the Palestinian security forces, promptly denied the report.

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