The militant Hamas movement in Gaza has been embarrassed by the mistaken "honor killing" of a 20-year-old woman who touched her fiance's hand at the beach. Last week's shooting has led residents of Beit Lahia, close to Gaza City, to call for the Islamic armed faction to hand over the gunmen still at large to the Palestinian Authority, but to no avail, The Independent said Wednesday. Driving home from the beach, the woman and her fiance were forced to stop by five masked men in a car. The woman was shot in the head and her fiance badly beaten. Hamas spokesman Mushira Masri told the newspaper the gunmen had not known the couple were engaged to be married. "The brothers who did this made a mistake," he said. "There was suspicion of immoral behavior." Two senior officials from Hamas were turned away by her grief-stricken family this week when they visited to offer their condolences. The couple was due to be married this Friday. © Copyright 2005 by United Press International

---

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)

---