Posted on 06/12/2007 7:20:34 AM PDT by Alouette
Chaos in Palestinian Authority reaches new peak: Hamas takes over Fatah bases, headquarters in all of northern Gaza Strip, conquers other wide parts of area. Palestinian president meets with Fatah leaders to discuss possibility of quitting unity government. Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades calls on members to take to streets
Ali Waked and agencies Latest Update: 06.12.07, 16:41 / Israel News
A loud explosion was heard Tuesday afternoon near the office of Palestinian President Mamhoud Abbas and some of the Palestinian Authority's security headquarters in Gaza City, Palestinian sources reported.
It later turned out that mortar shells were fired at Abbas office.
The Palestinian president plans to meet with senior Fatah members on Tuesday evening to discuss a possibility of quitting the unity government.
The al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, Fatah's military wing, announced a state of high alert among its members, and instructed all of its cells to take to the streets of Gaza and face Hamas members.
On Tuesday afternoon Hamas fighters captured several positions from the rival Fatah movement and threatened to step up the offensive after a rocket-propelled grenade hit the home of the Hamas prime minister.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas accused his Hamas rivals of staging a coup.
"All information points to a trend in which some of the political and military leaders of Hamas are planning a coup against the legitimate institutions, thinking they will be able to control the Gaza Strip by force," Abbas' office said in a statement.
There were no injuries in the early-morning attack on Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh’s home - the second in two days. But the attack underscored the increasingly ruthless nature of the fighting, which has killed 18 people in recent days. Exasperated Egyptian mediators said the bitter rivals turned down an appeal to meet for truce talks.
Fatah spokesperson Ahmad Abd al-Rahman said the organization’s central committee was reconsidering its part in the Palestinian unity government due to the violent clashes.
Hamas’ military wing, the Izz el-Din al-Qassam Brigades, published a warning to Palestinian security officials affiliated with Fatah not to report for duty due to the infighting in Gaza.
The warning said that any security official seen in the streets would be “suspected of participating in the injury of the Palestinian people and may get hurt”.
Exchanges of fire between the rival factions continued, with witnesses reporting of an attack by Hamas gunmen on the home of Fatah’s spokesman in the Strip, Maher Miqdad. Two Hamas members were injured during the assault.
In the early hours of Tuesday morning three teenage girls belonging to the same family, as well as a 70-year-old woman, were killed in the infighting.
Palestinian sources later reported that Fatah gunmen shot and killed a Hamas member, raising the number of dead in clashes between the two parties since Monday to 18.
According to the reports, the man who was killed was identified as Amro Rantisi, the nephew of Hamas leader Abd al-Aziz Rantisi who was assassinated by the IDF in 2004.
Gun battles were also reported in the Shati refugee camp on the outskirts of Gaza City.
Earlier, Hamas gunmen stormed and seized control of a Fatah-affiliated mosque; the Islamist group has declared a heightened state of alert.
Palestinians: doing the killing Israelis won't do.
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Looks like Abbas’s office is going to be air-conditioned Arafat style.
Is it a civil war yet?
<>= Yawn =<> ...
Let me know when the last paleo-stinian self-detonates.
patience please, while we let the democratic process work here...
Bad news bump. The popcorn will go stale if this excellent battle is all over.
I wonder how long it’ll take before the Palesimians start randomly blowing themselves up in Ramallah, in Gaza, in Nablus, etc, etc, etc.
And, of course, the world will blame the Joooooooooooooos for not occupying their ‘territory’ to stop the violence.
And then condemn the Joooooooooooos for occupying their ‘territory’ to stop the violence.
In every story involving the Gaza Strip there should be this addition:
The entire Gaza Strip is one half the area of the entire City of Chicago.
Though yes, where are the cries of “Civil War” and “sectarian violence”? Maybe “Palestine” (aka, the Philistine’s recently claimed “ancestral” tribal areas that they never really lived in) will go into a “quagmire” and self destruct? That will NEVER be the MSM's take, but it is reality (the two rarely meet).
The best part is that even the Islamic world has all but given up on “Palestine” and started openly talking to Israel.
Hey, you took the words out of my mouth. I entered the thread ready to post:
Palestinians ready to do the job the IDF won’t do.
Iran and Saudi Arabia are going to have to shell out more OPEC oil profits for all the insurance claims.
Hey Alouette that consider normal for PLO politics
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