Fatah VS Hamas : Palistinian 'Civil War' TidBiTs (DEBKA)

DEBKA ^ | 12-17-2006 | DEBKA

[FreedomNeocon]

Friday, Hamas escalated its internecine feud with Fatah to jihad

December 16, 2006, 10:24 PM (GMT+02:00)

Hamas leaders said Friday: “Abu Mazen and Fatah have declared war on Allah. Whoever joins them is a shahid.” They authorized the assassination of Fatah leader Mohammed Dahlan, accusing him of orchestrating an attempt on the life of Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniya, as his convoy entered Gaza Thursday night, Dec. 14. A bodyguard was killed and five members of his party injured, including Haniya’s son. Hamas vowed “to even the score”.

The Hamas prime minister returned home from a two-week absence carrying $31 million of the quarter of a billion dollars Iran donated to bankroll his organization's buildup for jihadist war. After Israel ordered the Rafah crossing from Egypt to Gaza closed, hundreds of Hamas militiamen seized control of the terminal directing heavy gunfire at the European monitors and Abu Mazen’s Force 17 presidential guard. Both fled. Thursday night, Haniya was finally allowed to enter Gaza after leaving the suitcases packed with cash behind in Sinai. It was then that Force 17 shot up the convoy.

In the Palestinian prime minister’s party was a senior Hamas military delegation led by Abu Obeida al Jerat, who signed military pacts with the heads of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards providing advanced combat training for Hamas terrorists. DEBKAfile’s military sources say Israel should have prevented Haniya’s entry with his party, even without the cash, to prevent the Iranian military training program from getting started in the Gaza Strip

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DEBKAfile’s military sources reveal that last week, US and Israel transferred a quantity of automatic rifles to Abu Mazen’s Fatah forces

December 17, 2006, 8:14 AM (GMT+02:00)

The guns reached Fatah leader Mohammed Dahlan who handed them over to the faction’s suicide wing, al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, Abbas’ only reliable strike force. Dahlan is now in command of the armed campaign against Hamas from presidential headquarters in Ramallah. Israeli officials are turning a blind eye to transfer of the arms into the hands of the most badly-wanted masterminds of Fatah suicide killings, such as Jemal Tirawi from Nablus.

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Hamas directs heavy fire at Mahmoud Abbas’ Gaza residence in his absence after Fatah shooting attack on Hamas foreign minister Mahmoud a-Zahar’s convoy

December 17, 2006, 3:12 PM (GMT+02:00)

No one was hurt in either attack. Overnight, a Fatah officer was killed, 4 were wounded, in heavy Hamas rapid deployment unit RPG, mortar and grenade assault on the presidential guard post near the Abbas residence.

The Saturday night attack followed Hamas' rejection of Abbas’s call for early Palestinian presidential and parliamentary polls, denouncing the move as a bid to overthrow its government. Hamas says its adherents will boycott the elections.

DEBKAfile’s Palestinian sources say Abbas’ election announcement, without a date, was more a gambit to push Hamas into talks on an experts government than a practical step. The Palestinian central election committee would need 4-6 months to set the elections up. Hamas which controls the government bureaucracy for organizing an election could prevent the opening of polling stations and this failed, could attack them.

The first skirmishes after Abbas’ speech in Ramallah erupted in the southern Gazan towns of Khan Younes and Rafah Saturday night. Hamas used heavy RPGs for the second time in two days. At least a dozen people were injured. Rumors that both factions had rigged bomb cars for detonating against each other emptied Palestinian streets.

On the West Bank, where Hamas is at a disadvantage, the bulk of al Aqsa Brigades units stand ready opposite Hamas. Last week, they received a supply of automatic weapons from the US and Israel.

Before Abu Mazen’s speech, DEBKAfile’s military sources reported both factions mobilized for another round of fighting. Hamas units were poised to seize the Gaza locations of the Fatah-controlled Preventive Security Service command, General Intelligence and Palestinian national TV studios and other facilities.

Abbas’ Fatah stood ready to overrun the Balata refugee camp of Nablus, the main Hamas stronghold. In the West Bank, Fatah has more guns, but Hamas has bolstered its positions there with heavy infusions of men and weapons, including anti-tank rockets.

Abbas began his tensely-awaited speech in Ramallah by charging that the kidnap of the Israeli soldier Gilead Shalit (by a Hamas-led assault team in June) was the cause of 500 Palestinian deaths, left 4,000 injured and thousands of homes wrecked. Palestinians continue to die as long as the soldier is held captive in the Gaza Strip.

In their internal communications, Hamas leaders refer to their war with Fatah as a “struggle between the “Movement of God and the Party of Satan.”

Palestinian factional warfare in Gaza and the West Bank and its radical religious overtones are being watched with increasing anxiety in neighboring Egypt, Jordan and other Arab nations in the region.

[FreedomNeocon]

The evil Zionist conspiracy and American military industrial complex strke again?

[FreedomNeocon]

P.S. From the article... "Whoever joins them is a shahid"

ROTFL... that cracks me up.

[ClaireSolt]

Now, which fairy godmother can turn these thugs into frogs? Oh sorry, I meant a state. LOL

[TomGuy]

Fatah VS Hamas

Sunni VS Shi'ite

Iran/Syria VS Saudi Arabia


Looks like the ME is returning to its history of fun and games.

[Diogenesis]

The same one as always.

[KingArthur305]

Fatah VS Hamas Sunni VS Shi'ite Iran/Syria VS Saudi Arabia

Time for Israel to finish them off while they fight amongest each other.

[Joe Boucher]

And if Iran gets nukes and uses them on Saudi Arabia is that a bad thing???

[Vn_survivor_67-68]

Why not just export these creatures into Egypt and be done with it? Blockade Gaza tightly and leave only a one-way border-crossing into Egypt.....until the last Gazan "palestinian" voluntarily exits Gaza, then close it permanently.

[FreedomNeocon]

Since Iran is the main enemy and Hamas/Sadr/Badr are their puppets... and we are getting weapons to Fatah.... I wonder if this 'dispute' is one thing Bush wanted to be resolved before he did whatever different in Iraq.

Could it be that finally we are deciding to address one of the root causes of the trouble in Iraq (outside influence, mainly Iran->Sadr&Badr Brigades), but rather than buying them off as the ISG suggested, we are going to do a little proxy waring ourselves? (Abbas/Fatah over Hamas) and some Kurdish groups as well as internal forces in Iran against the gov't there?

[bert]

Yes. Saudi Arabis is our friend and ally. Iranian incursion to Saudi Arabia will trigger the US defense pact and drag us into the war.

[hnj_00]

"Time for Israel to finish them off while they fight amongest each other."

No....the old parable applies...never step in among 2 brothers fighting!!!

let them fight each other...the whoever is left standing as a "victor" will be weakend and then Israel should finish them off...

[CPT Clay]

Who do we root for?

Kind of like Iran vs Iraq a few years ago.

[Gritty]

And the downside of these gangs of homicidal thugs murdering each other is...?

[Capt. Tom]

Hamas leaders said Friday: “Abu Mazen and Fatah have declared war on Allah. Whoever joins them is a shahid.”

This sentence could be somewhat misleading. Shahid means holy martyr. If you join Hamas you would be a Shahid. - tom

[Joe Boucher]

Defense pact? They threw us out of the "Kingdom". To hell with any pact.
Besides it's euroweenies that get their oil from saudi arabia, not us for the most part.

[bert]

.....They threw us out of the "Kingdom....

Actually, you don't exactly what happened. We left but there is no real evidence the threw us out. The reason for being there no longer existed and we left. We were able to accomplish the mission from elsewhere without causing them problems.

All the fcilities are still there at Al Karg, Al Batin and KFIA. Plus, the amount of stock piles is unknown but you can rest assured it is there.

[Joe Boucher]

I'd heard that they secretly asked if we'd leave so as to not become a problem within the country to the"royals".
And yes we did have facilities elsewhere that we could achieve whatever from. Also yes the facilities and munitions are in place in case they ring their f-ing bell for us to come in a moments notice to rescue them.