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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Mideast: New details emerge about Hamas murder plot |
| 2009-07-04 |
| [ADN Kronos] Hamas activists arrested by the Palestinian Authority have admitted to tracking the movements of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas in a bid to assassinate him, PA sources told Israeli daily Haaretz. "Hamas' intention was to scuttle the reconciliation talks [between Hamas and Fatah] in Cairo and to create chaos in the West Bank, in contrast to the sense of security that has characterised the territory for the past two years," the spokesman of the West Bank-ruling Fatah movement Fahmi Zarir told Haaretz. On Monday, Palestinian Authority secretary Taib Abd-Arahim had said earlier this week that PA security forces had arrested 10 Hamas members who were allegedly planning to attack PA institutions. Haaretz said the detainees admitted they were planning to assassinate several PA officials on 1 July. According to the PA sources, the Hamas activists were caught with weapons, maps and photos of senior Palestinian officers. Confessions extracted by Palestinian security forces revealed that the suspects also planned to assassinate several PA officials. The Hamas cell had three to five members, between the ages of 25 and 30. However, a spokesman of the Islamist movement's military wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades has denied the claims. Fatah, the group who controls the West Bank, and Hamas, who controls the Gaza Strip have been divided by a serious rift since Hamas took control of the coastal territory by force in mid-2007 after Abbas dissolved a Hamas-Fatah unity government in June 2007. Hamas won a surprise victory in the Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006. However, it immediately faced widespread international political opposition and an economic boycott from western powers including the European Union due to its refusal to comply with three conditions: recognition of Israel, rejection of violence and respect for previous accords between Israel and the Palestinians. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 Nah. The 'Hamas of the West Bank' is to blame. Or is it the 'Hamas On the West Bank'? Or it could be 'Hamas of the 25-30 Year-olds'? Maybe the 'Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigade on Tuesday'? Byzantine, I tells ya. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2009-07-04 10:26 |
| #1 Another outbreak of Palestinian Unity(tm). |
| Posted by: SteveS 2009-07-04 01:57 |