Hamas claimed that the PA is threatening to boot 50 Hamas leaders from the West Bank. To where the Hamas leaders would be deported is not clear. | Maybe, just maybe, the evil Joooz could be persuaded to make room in a prison for them ... |
A senior PA official in Ramallah told The Jerusalem Post that he was not aware of a decision to deport Hamas members. The official called the charges "lies and fabrications."
Over the past 24 hours, scores of Hamas agents were summoned to the PA General Intelligence Service headquarters in Ramallah, where they were reportedly told about the possibility that they may be kicked out of the West Bank.
Among those threatened with deportation are Sheikh Hussein Abu Kwaik, Aziz Kayed, Osama al-Hamad, Mohammed Hamdan, Khaled Ghaithan, Khalil Brafili, Ahmed Zeid, Yusef Kifaya, Khaldoun Barghouti and Ismail al-Wawi.
Abu Kwaik, a senior political figure in Hamas, said that he and his colleagues were forced to wait for hours at the headquarters before being notified that they might be deported.
He called the threat as "ridiculous" and said he filed a complaint with a top Fatah official.
"After a long wait, a security officer came out of the room and told us that we might be deported," Abu Kwaik said. "The officer told us that we would have to fill out special forms requiring each one of us to choose the country he prefers to be deported to."
Abu Kwaik said that he thought that the threat came in response to a Hamas announcement that it would demand that its detainees held in PA prisons be included in a prisoner swap with Israel in exchange for Gilad Schalit.
Sources with ties to Hamas said that the whole thing may have been a "joke" by one of the security officers in Ramallah. However, Hamas strongly denounced the threat and accused the PA of "endorsing Israeli policies and measures."
Ehab al-Ghissin, from Hamas' Ministry of Interior, said that the threat "was an indication that what happened to our grandfathers, who were deported from Palestine in 1948," could happen again. He said that Israel had deported to Lebanon many Hamas members in the early 90's.
"The Palestinian Authority is now endorsing Israel's criminal policy," al-Ghissin claimed. "The Palestinian Authority wants to help Israel Judaize Jerusalem and build settlements and deport more Palestinian leaders."
Ismail Radwan, a Hamas spokesman, advised that the Hamas "wouldn't have mercy" on Fatah security forces in the West Bank. To these forces, Radwan said, "You must return to the right path and reconsider your ways because neither the people nor the resistance would have mercy on you."
Aziz Dwaik, Hamas' most senior official in the West Bank, condemned the deportation threat against the Hamas members as an "assault on Islamic and national values and principles."
Dwaik added that he could not understand "how any Palestinian could threaten a Palestinian with deportation from his homeland." He also warned that such a move would see rival Palestinians "enter the phase of breaking the bones of each other."
Meanwhile, Fatah accused Hamas forces of arresting 10 top Fatah affiliates in the Gaza Strip over the past 24 hours.
A Fatah spokesman said that the arrests seemed to be directed at preventing the organization from celebrating the 46th anniversary of its creation. He identified the men "abducted" by Hamas as Ibrahim Tahrawi, Musa Hils, Tahseen Jabour, Yasser Juaidi, Imad Maslamani, Rami al-Sawisi, Saed al-Sawwaf, Ahmed al-Hawaiti, Amin al-Mughni and Imad al-Nadi.
Last weekend, Hamas also nabbed Fayez Abu Aitah, the Fatah spokesman in the Gaza Strip, who has been under house arrest since he returned to Gaza City earlier this year.