974 Nights in Hamastan
Love thy neighbor, I always say—and thank God he’s not Palestinian:
Hamas and Fatah loyalists clashed Saturday at a mosque in the southern Gaza Strip, leaving nine people wounded in the latest flare-up of violence between the two factions, witnesses and medical officials said.
The melee erupted after Hamas tried to replace an independent cleric at a mosque in the town of Khan Yunis with one of its own religious leaders, witnesses said.
What began as fistfights soon degenerated into face-offs with stones and knives. Hamas security officials who arrived at the scene fired rounds in the air, then came under fire themselves from a nearby area, witnesses said.
And this was at a house of worship.
The fourth estate is having no easier time than the first:
Assailants have broken into the offices of two Gaza newspapers with ties to opposition groups, and the Palestinian journalists’ union on Saturday held Hamas responsible for the burglaries.
…
The Palestinian journalists’ union said in a statement Saturday that it held Hamas supporters responsible for the break-ins at Al Watan and Al Istiqlal.
“We call on them to stop the ongoing assault against the media and freedom of speech,” the statement said.
I’m not convinced that one party’s trashing of another party’s house organ rivals Times v. Sullivan—but okay.
This gets a little more personal:
Hamas security forces arrested early Sunday an influential member of Fatah in the Gaza Strip, the forces and his family said.
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Rabah, who is in his 70s, was the Palestinian ambassador to Yemen for more than 20 years.
Don’t act surprised. They just beat up an 80-year-old Christian lady the other day.
Not that they need them, but Hamass reinforcements are on the way:
Egypt abruptly allowed about 100 Palestinians who had been stranded in Egypt since Hamas seized the Gaza Strip in mid-June to return home before dawn on Sunday, witnesses said. Most were supporters of Hamas or gunmen from other factions wanted by Israel, they said.
Israel had opposed the return of the group, and it was not immediately clear why Egypt allowed them to cross into Gaza at this time. There was no advance announcement and Hamas security officials confiscated film from photographers and cameramen alerted to the scene.
But here’s one atrocity evidently not committed by the Palestinians:
In the context of the Hamas-Fatah power struggle, Fatah officials and security agents have distributed a video documenting the alleged killing of a 16-year-old girl in the Gaza Strip.
But it has emerged that that the footage was taken in Iraq, where a 16-year-old girl was killed for “dishonoring” her family.
…
For the past few years, both Fatah and Hamas have been involved in a smear campaign against each other. The two parties have devoted tremendous efforts to manipulate the media, often feeding reporters with false information.
Last week Fatah managed to sell another hoax to reporters when it claimed that its security forces had discovered rocket launchers in Bethlehem that were directed against Jerusalem. It later turned out that the “rockets” were simple pipes that has been set up by children who were trying to imitate Hamas.
A lovely vignette of Palestinian “society”, don’t you think?