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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan | |
| Trucefire™ holds despite sporadic attacks | |
| 2007-01-31 | |
| GAZA (Reuters) - A ceasefire between the governing Hamas movement and the once-dominant Fatah faction largely held in the Gaza Strip for a second day despite sporadic incidents of violence on Wednesday. Hospital officials said Bashir Issa, a member of Fatah's al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, was in critical condition after being shot by gunmen who opened fire from a car in Gaza City. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. Probably leprechauns. Hey, Bashir. Does it hurt more or less if your gunned down during a ceasefire?
Who timed it? The ceasefire went into effect on Tuesday after the deaths of at least 30 Palestinians in the fiercest internal Palestinian violence since Hamas, an Islamist group, defeated the long-dominant Fatah faction in an election a year ago. Shops and schools had shut down during five days of bloodshed that preceded the agreement by the feuding factions to pull back from what many Gazans described as a rush toward civil war. The violence had derailed unity government™ talks between Hamas and Fatah and prompted some families in the coastal strip to flee their homes. Derailed the talks. Can ya beat that... The truce was initially threatened when Hamas blamed the Preventive Security Service for the killing on Tuesday of one of its commanders, Hussein Shabasi. Hospital officials said Shabasi was shot in the head in the town of Khan Younis. The security service denied any connection with his death. Leprechauns, jinns, jealous husband? Who knows. It's a mystery... | |
| Posted by:tu3031 |
| #7 #5 Nobody likes Palestinians---including other Palestinians. Love doesn't have anything to do with the support that they receive. Quite an opposite emonion is the key. |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2007-01-31 20:45 |
| #6 No. It's like liberals. They are concerned about the underclass, but only if they stay in their own neighborhoods. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2007-01-31 20:40 |
| #5 Interesting Daniel Pipes link. Two popular destinations for Gazans are Canada, which still offers legal immigration, and Cuba, which imposes few restrictions on Palestinian travelers. Those with tourist visas to Cuba often don't plan to go there. Instead, they get off in transit at a European airport, rip up their Palestinian travel document and seek asylum. I thought the Europeans loved Palestinians and would welcome them with leis and welfare checks. |
| Posted by: ed 2007-01-31 18:27 |
| #4 Ceasefire? Does that mean that Hamas and Fatah are too scared to shoot at each other? Little pansy chickens? Posers? Not pious enough? etc., etc., and so on and so forth . . . . |
| Posted by: gorb 2007-01-31 17:35 |
| #3 Pal emigration from Gaza Some items from Daniel Pipes http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/683 |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2007-01-31 15:10 |
| #2 After the Israelis took the Gaza strip, they tried to give it back to the Egyptians as a part of the peace deal. The Egyptians laughed, said Gaza had always been a smuggler's den, out of control, and they would not take it back. Its hard to imagine opening your coffee shop before the mid-morning assassinations, taking a break for the afternoon gunfights, and closing while trying to get resupplied in the face of an Israeli shutdown. How was your day, sweetie, any bombings nearby? |
| Posted by: whatadeal 2007-01-31 10:59 |
| #1 The violence ...prompted some families in the coastal strip to flee their homes. Interesting. A blip or a trend? Depends whether they move in with relatives in the next refugee camp or the the Territories altogether, I s'pose. Let's keep an eye out for reports of refugees. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2007-01-31 10:28 |