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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Hamas reasserts control in Gaza, rounds up 'collaborators' |
| 2009-01-22 |
| The Islamist Palestinian group Hamas said on Wednesday it had begun reasserting control in the Gaza Strip and rounding up suspected collaborators with Israel, drawing accusations from the rival Fatah group that its members were being targeted. "The internal security service was instructed to track collaborators and hit them hard," said Ehab al-Ghsain, spokesman of the Hamas Interior Ministry, without singling out Fatah members by name. "They arrested dozens of collaborators who attempted to strike the resistance by giving information to the occupation about the fighters," he said, using a Hamas term for Israel, whose 22-day offensive devastated the Gaza Strip. Earlier this month, Haaretz correspondent Amira Hass first reported the secret executions of dozens of Gazans consider by Hamas to be "collaborators" with the enemy. Hamas and Fatah supporters have traded accusations in Arab media that Fatah collaborated with Israel in the hope it could return to power in the Gaza Strip and that Hamas provoked the Israeli invasion by firing rockets into southern Israel. Hamas, an Islamist group that won the 2006 Palestinian election, violently seized the coastal enclave from Fatah, led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, in 2007. A statement issued by Fatah in Gaza said that since fighting between Israel and Gaza militants ended - Hamas and Israel put separate ceasefires into effect on Sunday - Hamas militias had carried out a number of attacks against Fatah members. These attacks, according to the statement, included "shooting at the feet of Fatah members, brutal crimes of execution and throwing the bodies in the rubble of destruction." Fatah appealed to Abbas' Palestinian Authority to intervene. Ghsain denied the allegations but said authorities had begun tracking down suspected "collaborators" with Israel. "These are familiar lies and false allegations from Fatah and the forces of sedition," he said. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #3 Do these people count as martyrs? |
| Posted by: Rambler in Virginia 2009-01-22 17:37 |
| #2 Today we settle all family business... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2009-01-22 09:35 |
| #1 HRW to the rescue! |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2009-01-22 08:08 |