Former Hamas minister shot in ‘attempted assassination’ in West Bank
Nasser al-Shaer hospitalized with bullet wounds to legs after attack by unknown assailants in Nablus; terror group accuses rival Fatah of being behind shooting
Palestinian police said unknown assailants on Friday shot and wounded an official affiliated with Gaza’s Hamas rulers in the West Bank.
Nasser al-Shaer, who served as deputy Hamas prime minister for a year and a half after the terror group won the last Palestinian elections in 2006, was admitted to a hospital with gunshot wounds to his legs.
Photos on social media showed a car he had reportedly been riding in riddled with bullet holes in the driver’s side door.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the shooting and ordered an investigation.
He also phoned al-Shaer and wished him a speedy recovery, according to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa.
Hamas, which in 2007 routed pro-Abbas forces in the Gaza Strip, denounced the shooting as an “assassination attempt,” calling on its rival Fatah movement to stop inciting against Hamas.
آثار الرصاص الذي استهدف نائب رئيس الوزراء الأسبق والمحاضر بجامعة النجاح الدكتور ناصر الدين الشاعر في قرية كفر قليل جنوب نابلس، ما أدى لإصابته.#فلسطين pic.twitter.com/JapVUATLQo
— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) July 22, 2022
Since 2007, when Hamas seized power in the coastal strip, Gaza has remained under an Israeli-Egyptian blockade.
Repeated efforts to reconcile Abbas’ Palestinian Authority, which holds sway in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers have failed.
Al-Shaer also works as an academic at An-Najah University in Nablus city.
