Posted on 01/05/2007 6:23:31 PM PST by blam
Gaza on brink of civil war as cleric is killed
By Tim Butcher in Jerusalem
Last Updated: 2:00am GMT 06/01/2007
An unarmed Muslim cleric was shot dead as he drove home from leading prayers yesterday, the latest victim of the Gaza Strip violence that is threatening to spiral into all-out civil war.
The funeral of Col Ghayeb saw a huge display of Fatah firepower on the streets of Gaza City
Witnesses said Adel Nassar, 50, was murdered because, during his sermon, he dared criticise the killers of a Fatah security chief and seven of his bodyguards. That attack, on Thursday, was widely blamed on Hamas.
The killing of a cleric represents a new low in the internecine fighting between Hamas and Fatah which has already claimed dozens of lives and defied attempts by the parties' leaderships to agree peace terms.
The latest call for a ceasefire by the leaders of both groups ended in the co-ordinated attack on the home of Col Mohammed Ghayeb on Thursday night, the bloodiest single recent battle.
Col Ghayeb made a phone call to Palestinian television describing how men fired a rocket-propelled grenade into his fortified home in the Jabalya refugee camp.
Moments later the colonel was killed. When the battle eventually subsided six of his men were dead and a seventh died in hospital yesterday.
The fighting came as it emerged that the United States is secretly preparing to give £50 million to support forces loyal to the Fatah leader and president of the Palestinian National Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, who is locked in a power struggle with Hamas over control of the government.
The plan involves the US administration asking Congress for the money in the next few months, although the scheme is so sensitive that the state department declined to comment yesterday.
While the US will present the funding as a measure to improve overall security in the occupied territories, many on the ground will see it as backing one of the two sides engaged in a near civil war.
Mushir al-Masri, a senior Hamas official, accused Washington of trying to promote a coup against the democratically-elected Hamas government. "We demand Abbas postpones this US policy, which is tearing the Palestinian people apart," he said.
The funeral yesterday of Col Ghayeb and his men saw a huge display of Fatah firepower on the streets of Gaza City, with mourners impervious to heavy winter rains.
The marchers fired in the air and called for vengeance against Hamas.
Actually, fence the place off. Don't let anybody out and the last one standing we will call the winner.
This is great news.
Feel the love.
Risky Scheme? It certainly is a scam.
What! No UN peacekeepers? /sarcasm
Thanks - I didn't notice that.
Arab killing Arab for the glory of their satanic energized moon god allah. Kill you jumping jackasses of men, sons of Ismael, Kill each other!
Kill enough of these “clerics” and the problem goes away.
Divide and Conquer baby - it's right there on page 13 of Military tactics for Dummies.
The Palestinians are starting to give homo sapiens a bad name.
Can't wait for that ever popular two state solution. Palestine is on the verge of being the Switzerland of the middle east. /s
"An unarmed Muslim cleric..."
Well there's something you don't expect to read about. Seriously, what was the point of leading the story this way?
Satan is a house divided, but which is more divided : israel with its many political parties, or palestine with fatah/hamas at each others throats?
Isn't gaza an ancient phoenecian colony? The Phoenecians were "people of the sea". If they ever want to return to the creative mode, marine construction would be a good place to start. I've got a couple of invention-ideas to jump start them with.
But like most of you say, they'll kill most of themselves off before realizing that satan, not allah, has been their ruler.
Actually, the two-state solution is the best option.
That way, Israel doesn't have to put up with the crap while the Palis kill each other.
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