[wvns] Hamas seizes Fatah headquarters
Video: Israeli troops shoot Hebron family - June 5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_CRzdlA5To
===
Hamas seizes Fatah security headquarters
By SARAH EL DEEB, Associated Press Writer
Tue Jun 12, 2007
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070612/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_palestinians
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Hundreds of Hamas fighters firing rockets and
mortar shells captured the headquarters of the Fatah-allied security
forces in northern Gaza on Tuesday, scoring a key victory in the
bloody battle for control of the seaside strip.
Both sides said Gaza had descended into civil war, as the death toll
from two days of Palestinian fighting reached 37.
Tuesday's battles marked a turning point, with Hamas moving
systematically to seize Fatah positions in what some in the Islamic
militant group said would be a decisive phase in the yearlong power
struggle. The confrontations became increasingly brutal in recent
days, with some killed execution-style in the streets, others in
hospital shootouts or thrown off rooftops.
The conflict escalated further when the Fatah central committee
decided to suspend the activities of its ministers in the government
it shares with Hamas. In an emergency meeting in the West Bank
city of Ramallah, Fatah decided on a full withdrawal if the fighting
doesn't stop, said government spokesman Nabil Abu Rdeneh.
President Mahmoud Abbas accused the Islamic militants of Hamas of
trying to stage a coup.
A survivor of the Hamas assault on the northern security headquarters
said the Fatah forces were outgunned and reinforcements never arrived.
"We were pounded with mortar, mortar, mortar," the Fatah fighter, who
only gave his first name, Amjad, said, breathing heavily. "They had no
mercy. It was boom, boom. They had rockets that could reach almost
half of the compound."
Battles raged across the Gaza Strip during the day. The staccato of
gunfire echoed across Gaza City, plumes of smoke rose into the air
from far-flung neighborhoods and one firefight sent a dozen
preschoolers scrambling for cover.
In a sign of the heightened hostilities, both sides threatened to kill
each other's leaders. A rocket-propelled grenade damaged the home of
Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas and four mortar shells slammed
into Abbas' Gaza City office. Neither attack caused any injuries.
Desperately trying to boost morale, disorganized Fatah forces attacked
Hamas' main TV station, but were repelled after a heavy battle. The
station later showed a group of captured men it said were among the
attackers, blood streaming down their faces.
Many Gazans, pinned down in their homes, were furious with the
combatants. "Both Fatah and Hamas are leading us to death and
destruction," said Ayya Khalil, 29, whose husband serves as an
intelligence officer. "They don't care about us."
There was concern the fighting might spread to the West Bank, where
Fatah has the upper hand, as Hamas notched victories in Gaza. Late
Tuesday, Fatah gunmen wounded four Hamas activists in the West Bank
city of Nablus, Fatah said in a statement.
In Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert proposed stationing
international forces along the Gaza Strip's border with Egypt to
prevent arms from reaching Palestinian militants, including Hamas.
However, he ruled out assistance to Abbas' forces.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for an immediate halt to the
violence and urged all sides to support Abbas.
Hamas and Fatah have waged a power struggle in fits and spurts since
Hamas won parliamentary elections in January 2006, and Hamas signaled
that the fighting was moving into a decisive phase. It ignored pleas
by Abbas and exasperated Egyptian mediators to honor a cease-fire.
"Decisiveness will be in the field," said Islam Shahwan, spokesman for
the Hamas military wing.
In contrast, Fatah commanders complained they were not given clear
orders by Abbas to fight back and that they had no central command.
Fatah's strongman in Gaza, Mohammed Dahlan, has spent the last few
weeks in Cairo because of a knee injury. Other leading Fatah officials
left Gaza for the West Bank after previous rounds of bloodshed.
"There's a difference between leading on the ground and leading by
mobile phone," police Col. Nasser Khaldi said of Dahlan's absence.
"Hamas is just taking over our positions. There are no orders."
Both sides have been arming themselves in recent weeks, smuggling
weapons through tunnels from Egypt.
Abbas accused Hamas leaders of trying to seize control of Gaza by force.
The headquarters of the Fatah-allied security forces in northern Gaza,
a key prize for Hamas, was taken by the Islamic militants after
several hours of battle. Some 200 Hamas fighters had fired mortars,
rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns at the compound, where some
500 Fatah loyalists were holed up and returned fire. Thirty-five
jeeploads of Fatah fighters were sent as reinforcements. After
nightfall, Hamas seized control, said a Hamas commander, Wael al-Shakra.
A Fatah security official confirmed the building had been lost. At
least 12 people were killed and 30 wounded in the fighting.
Earlier, Hamas fighters also overran several smaller Fatah positions
in Gaza.
Hamas gunmen also exchanged fire with Fatah forces at the southern
security headquarters in the town of Khan Younis, but did not launch a
major assault there. The town's streets were empty as people huddled
inside. One Hamas man was killed, according to Hamas and medical
officials.
In Gaza City, Hamas fired mortars and explosives at the pro-Fatah
Preventive Security headquarters, drawing return fire from watchtowers
in the compound. Elsewhere, Fatah fighters killed four Hamas gunmen in
a battle near the besieged house of a senior Fatah commander.
The State Department and the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem, warning of a
"very dangerous security situation," advised journalists not to travel
to Gaza and urged any there to leave.
Even before the current outbreak of violence, no Western
correspondents were based in Gaza. As the violence escalated this
week, most journalists were staying off the streets, covering the
conflict from the windows of high-rise buildings and keeping in touch
with their sources by telephone.
Hamas and Fatah have been at odds since the Hamas election victory
ended four decades of Fatah rule. The sides agreed to share power in
an uneasy coalition three months ago, but put off key disputes,
including control over the security forces. Most of the forces are
dominated by Fatah loyalists, while Hamas has formed its own militia
and has thousands of gunmen at its command.
Beverley Milton-Edwards, a Hamas expert at Queens University in
Belfast, Northern Ireland, said Gaza is heading for a final showdown.
"This has become the existential battle for the soul of the
Palestinian people," Milton-Edwards said.
Brutality has grown in recent days, with people shot at close range in
street executions. On Sunday, a member of Abbas' presidential guard,
Mohammed Sweirki of Fatah, was kidnapped and hurled off a 15-story
apartment building, followed a few hours later by the killing of a
Hamas fighter, Abu Kainas, thrown from the roof of a 12-story building
in apparent retaliation. In all, more than 80 people have been killed
since mid-May, most of them militants.
===
Testimony: Man Used As Human Shield Injured In Jenin Camp
12 June 2007
B'Tselem
Majd Mufid Abd al-'Aziz Ghanem, 20, is a student and a
resident of Jenin refugee camp. His testimony was
given to 'Atef Abu al-Rub on 19 May 2007:
I am a student at An-Najah University and live with my
family in the entrance of the Jenin refugee camp. I
was studying for my final exams on Tuesday, 15 May
2007 around 1:30am when I heard military vehicles
coming into the neighborhood and parking in front of
our house. The soldiers called to us on loudspeakers
to leave the house.
One of the vehicles stopped before our entrance,
lighting up the house -- I understood that the
soldiers meant for us to leave. I went into my
parents' room and found them awake. I went to the
front door and opened it, and the soldiers ordered
everyone in the house to come out.
We all went out and stood in front of the soldiers,
and they ordered me and my father to take off our
clothes. I took off my shirt, pulled down my pants and
turned around according to the soldiers' instructions.
My father did the same.
The soldier asked me and my father to approach the
jeep parked outside our house. The soldiers then took
our identification cards and one of the soldiers asked
if I was hiding anything inside the house. I told him
that I was not hiding anything. The soldier screamed
at me calling me a liar and warned me not to lie. He
repeated the question a few times and kept saying that
I was a liar. I told the soldier in reply that he
could search the house.
The soldier pointed to our neighbor's -- Ghazi
al-Jamal's -- two-story house. The ground floor
belongs to his son Ahmad who went to the US and the
first floor belongs to Ghazi's father who has not been
at home recently. He ordered me to go there, open the
door, and turn on the lights. I explained to him that
the owners had gone to the United States. The soldier
insisted that he saw lights and that there was someone
in the house. I went to the ground floor and knocked
on the door. Nobody opened it. I knocked again and
again then finally went back to the jeep.
A few soldiers stood next to the entrance on the
ground floor. The soldier ordered me to go to the
group standing next to the door. I drew closer and saw
that they had managed to break down the door. The
soldiers ordered me to go inside, turn on the lights,
and open the doors to all the rooms. I went into the
house, turned on the lights, and went outside. One of
the soldiers who was inside Ahmad's apartment also
ordered me to go up to the first floor which belonged
to Ghazi's father.
I knocked on the outside door and there was no
response. The soldiers broke down the iron door and
went on to the roof which was locked. They came back
to the first floor and ordered me to break the wooden
door. I broke the door with the help of one of them
and was then ordered by the soldiers to go back to the
jeep.
I went back to the jeep which was parked in the middle
of the road and told the soldier that I wanted to go
back home. The soldier refused and told me to sit on
the ground between the jeep and a bulldozer. About
twenty minutes after I sat down, shooting started from
the east of where I was seated. I was outside on the
road while the soldiers sat in their military
vehicles.
The soldiers in the house and in the jeep started
shooting at the armed people. The exchange of fire
lasted between 10-15 minutes and then I felt that I
had been shot in the lower back. I knocked on the jeep
and signaled to the soldiers that I was hurt by
showing them my hand covered with blood. The soldiers
from the jeep ordered me to sit down. I waited ten
more minutes until another jeep came to protect the
two that were already there. The soldiers opened the
back door of one of the jeeps and took me inside. One
of the soldiers bandaged my wound and sent me back
home. When I got home I was still bleeding. I went
inside only to find the soldiers still there. I asked
for some first aid but the soldiers did nothing but
put more bandages on the wound.
My father asked for the soldiers' permission to call
an ambulance but they refused. Finally, they called an
ambulance that arrived about half an hour after I had
gone inside. The ambulance took me to the government
hospital in Jenin where I was treated. It turns out
that I had a superficial wound from a bullet that had
not penetrated deeply, and exited from the back of my
hips.
==
Jewish worshippers desecrate Palestinian cemetery, break tombstones,
write 'Death to Arabs' on graves
Muslim graveyard vandalized
Efrat Weiss
06.08.07
Israel News
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3410332,00.html
Dozens of Jewish worshippers desecrated a Muslim cemetery in a
Palestinian village near Arial on Friday.
The worshippers broke some tombstones, and wrote "Death to Arabs" on
others. Noaf, a resident of a nearby village, said that the
worshippers arrived at the cemetery escorted by soldiers.
"Several of them entered a nearby Muslim cemetery, broke tombstones,
and wrote things on them such as "Death to Arabs". I don't know
exactly how many tombstones were desecrated. We were under curfew
during their worship time, and they came and did this," he said.
Rabbi Arik Asherman, head of Rabbis for Human Rights, denounced the
incident. "As rabbis, we protest this desecration and are reminded of
our pain when such acts are committed against us."
According to an official IDF response, the entry of Jewish worshippers
into the cemetery was authorized in order to allow them to visit the
Yeshua Ben Nun tomb nearby.
"On the whole, about 1,300 people entered the place, most acting
wonderfully, as is appropriate upon entering a sacred place.
Unfortunately, a handful of worshippers chose to create a provocation
and vandalize Palestinian graves," the IDF statement said.
The IDF also said that an official complaint was sent to the
worshippers' leaders. "The IDF has agreed with leaders of the
worshippers that they would be responsible for repairing the damages
as early as next week."
===
IDF kills two Palestinians in separate incidents in territories
Avi Issacharoff
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/867726.html
Hebrew: http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/spages/867485.html
Israel Defense Forces troops killed two Palestinians in separate
incidents Wednesday, one of them a 67-year-old man during dead during
a raid in the West Bank.
An IDF spokeswoman confirmed both incidents.
In northern Gaza, the Israel Air Force targeted two armed Palestinians
"who were spotted planting explosives," the spokeswoman said.
Hamas said in a radio broadcast that the dead man belonged to the group.
Earlier, troops opened fire on a Palestinian man who tried
to assault them during an arrest raid in the West Bank town of Hebron,
the spokeswoman said.
A Palestinian security source claimed that IDF soldiers came to a
house in Hebron before dawn and shot a man who answered the door,
killing him, then shot his wife, wounding her.
The IDF said that soldiers who entered the house on an arrest raid
were attacked by Palestinians who threw a gas canister and other
household objects at them.
One of the Palestinians grabbed a soldier's rifle, forcing troops to
open fire, the military said.
Hospital officials said 67-year-old Yehia al-Jabari was killed and
seven members of his family were wounded, including his 65-year old
wife, who was in serious condition, hospital officials said.
Ma'an, a local news agency, said troops apparently were looking for
the man's son, who was wanted by Israel.
Family members maintain that the soldiers fired on them after a verbal
confrontation, and that they did not attack the soldiers physically.
Israel said two wanted men inside the house were arrested.
===
`Peace house` harms Palestinians
By Tom Spender in Hebron
Aljazeera
14.5.07
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/A41CBB04-8555-4E07-AC7A-42A641A4D956.htm
A group of Israeli soldiers sit underneath webbing next to a large new
building on the road into H2, the Israeli-controlled area of Hebron in
the southern West Bank.
Their job is to protect the apartment block that represents the newest
Jewish settlement in the city.
It is a hive of activity as young settlers pour in and out with tools,
dividing the 3,500sq.m of space into small flats to accommodate scores
of new families.
For the settlers, the new building nicknamed Beit HaShalom (Peace
House) is a vital strategic asset aimed at entrenching the Jewish
community in Hebron, a city holy to both Muslims and Jews.
For the Palestinians it is another blow to their hopes of a state. It
defies the Israeli government`s stated aim of carrying out a partial
disengagement from the West Bank following the withdrawal from the
Gaza Strip in 2005.
David Wilder, a New Jersey-born settler who has been in Hebron for 25
years and whose daughter is moving into the Peace House, says `of
course there cannot be a Palestinian state. A child can look at the
map and see that it would be suicide for Israel.`
While all the West Bank settlements are illegal under international
law, the Peace House has also been deemed illegal under Israeli law.
`Higher law`
It was bought for $700,000. However the settlers did not obtain the
necessary permit to buy from the Israeli Civil Administration, which
runs the West Bank.
Under Palestinian law, selling property to Jews is punishable by death
and Palestinian police have arrested a man in Jericho in connection
with the sale.
However, Sarit Weinberger, who is moving into a small one-bedroom
apartment in the new building with her husband and child, says the
settlers are obeying a higher law.
`We have a religious duty to live everywhere in Eretz Israel. I don`t
believe in the ministry of defence – I believe in God,` she says.
Eretz Israel means what is now Israel plus the occupied territories of
the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
But while the 700 Jewish settlers in H2 are able to live normal lives,
the 20,000 Palestinians who live alongside them suffer severe
restrictions to their freedom of movement and complain that settlers
harass them with impunity.
Bassam al Jabary, a 41-year-old Palestinian who lives next to the new
settlement, says the settlers threaten and menace many of his compatriots.
`They throw stones and rubbish at us, attack our children and shout
insults. It is no longer safe for us to let our wives and children go
out after about 6pm. And the Israeli soldiers and police stand and
watch. Even the settlers` dogs have more rights than us,` he says.
According to Hisham Sharabati, who edits the local Rassala Al Khalil
newspaper `the city is tense all day long. If there is an attack on
Jews somewhere in Israel or Palestine, the settlers take revenge on
the Palestinians of Hebron."
"They go on the rampage,` he says.
Observers from the Temporary International Presence in the City of
Hebron (TIPH), set up to monitor the human rights situation in the
city, say reports of attacks and harassment by Israeli settlers had
increased around the Peace House.
No through road
To try to keep the settlers and Palestinians as separate as possible,
the Israeli authorities have banned Palestinians from driving on many
roads and even from walking along one stretch of road.
Those with houses on Shuhada (Martyrs) Street, adjacent to the
settlement, must instead exit from the rear of their buildings and
crossing the road entails a journey of several kilometres.
`The ban on Shuhada Street is an oral order of the kind I used to give
out myself – it isn`t written down because it is not really defensible
under Israeli law,` Mikhael Manekin, who served as a soldier in Hebron
and now works with the group Breaking the Silence, which gives former
soldiers the chance to talk about their experiences.
As a result, about 10,000 Palestinians have left H2, their boarded-up
shops now daubed with slogans such as `Death to the Arabs'.
But none of this concerns Sarit Weinberger who says matter-of –factly,
`the Arabs – I don`t see them`.
A standard-issue Israeli army short M16 assault rifle leans against
the wall of her apartment. All the settlers are armed, which they say
is necessary to protect themselves against attack.
But these days it is the Israeli government that represents the main
threat to their lifestyle.
The Hebron settlers are deeply unpopular with many Israelis following
incidents of harassment of Palestinians caught on film and shown on
Israeli TV.
Withdrawal doubts
And Hebron is on the Palestinian side of Israel`s West Bank Barrier,
which has been openly referred to by some Israeli politicians as the
future border of Israel. In such a scenario, the Hebron settlers could
find themselves facing eviction.
`I am concerned about this. After Gush Katif [the withdrawal from the
Gaza Strip] a lot of people who thought it couldn't happen saw that it
did,` Wilder says.
`But I don`t think they will do it. Many thousands of Jews visit the
Tomb of the Patriarchs here every year and I think a majority would
oppose closing down Hebron.`
Events suggest Wilder`s confidence is not misplaced, at least in the
short-term.
Amir Peretz, Israel`s defence minister said he would evacuate the
Peace House shortly after it was occupied, but nothing has been done
and Peretz is now battling to save his career following criticism of
the way Israel handled last summer`s Lebanon war.
`The Israeli government is too weak to take on the settlers. And the
Palestinian Authority can`t do anything,` Sharabati says.
Meanwhile, the settlers have now occupied the building for more than a
month, meaning the Israeli authorities need a court order to evict them.
And despite their unpopularity, the religious settlers exert a kind of
moral authority over more secular Jews, according to Ilan Lonai of
Amnesty International.
`They make us feel guilty that we are not good Jews. They say we
should first be proper Jews before we tell them what to do,` he says.
And there is also the threat of violence. In the wake of the Gaza
withdrawal, younger West Bank settlers have become increasingly
militant and say they will use force to resist evacuation.
In Hebron, Wilder said that there would be little the settlers could
do if the authorities chose to evict them by force.
But 19-year-old David Cohen from Meitar in southern Israel had a
different opinion.
`If the authorities don`t come carrying big bats we won`t do anything
to them,` he said.
`But if they do come armed then we will have to protect ourselves.`
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