Palestinian Civil War Watch - 8

Let me start this one out with a clown photo. Which at least at the current time accompanies an article about 8 new deaths in the Palestinian civil war.

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh met with PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday night to discuss a solution to the current inter-faction violence after a day of clashes between Hamas and Fatah loyalists left eight Palestinians dead.

According to Army Radio, Haniyeh, of Hamas, said the two had agreed at the meeting to work toward ending the infighting in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

"We are going to end all armed displays in the streets," Haniyeh told reporters. he said. Abbas had no comment.

Wait a minute. I thought that was already accomplished in the last cease fire.

I suppose such promises are about as reliable as their cease fire promises to Israel.

The eight Palestinians killed in Thursday's armed confrontations brought the death toll to 13 over the past 48 hours. At least 16 Palestinians were wounded in Thursday's fighting.

Haniyeh, who returned to the Gaza Strip after a week-long visit to Saudi Arabia, appealed to the warring factions to halt the fighting and to direct their weapons toward Israel. Fatah officials, on the other hand, accused Hamas of operating "death squads" in the Gaza Strip.

With no Jews in Gaza any more it seems the Palestinians are turning on each other. Sort of a way to maintain military proficiecy in live fire exercises. Given the picture of the clowns I'd say they had a ways to go.

This scene is much more horiffic:

The body of Gen. Muhammed Gharib, chief of the Fatah-dominated Preventive Security Service in northern Gaza, riddled with bullets and mutilated by stab wounds, was found in his home in northern Gaza Thursday after a daylong battle with Hamas gunmen. Gharib's two daughters were also killed during the fighting, according to reports.

Gharib was on the phone to Palestine TV just moments before his death and appealed for help as his house came under attack. "They are killers," he said of the Hamas gunmen. "They are targeting the house, children are dying, they are bleeding. For God's sake, send an ambulance, we want an ambulance, somebody move."

It is one thing to kill a man because of political differences. Killing his children will get a serious blood feud started. The #1 rule of any successful mafia is that families are off limits. "Businessmen" OK. That is just business. Families are, well, family. When that rule is violated the feud gets serious. It is no longer about business. It is about blood.

Update: 05 Jan '07 1733z

The Jerusalem Post reports that a muslim cleric calling for peace between Palestinian factions was killed Friday.

There was no claim of responsibility in the death of Adel Nasar, who was shot by gunmen outside the mosque in the Mughazi refugee camp in central Gaza.

Nasar was not openly affiliated with any political party, but he was a well-known figure in the refugee camp and often spoke against Hamas in his sermons. He belonged to a small group called "The Sunna People," which advocates the imposition of Islamic law.

In a sermon Friday, Nasar had criticized the latest wave of Gaza's factional violence, in which seven Fatah men were killed in an attack widely blamed on the rival Hamas movement, witnesses said.

Nasar said fighting between Muslims is forbidden, and warned that God is going to punish the killers of the men as well as Palestinian rulers for not implementing the rule of God, the witnesses said.

He did not mention Hamas by name, but he appeared to be referring to the group, which controls most of the Palestinian government.

Evidently there are Palestinians who prefer war to peace and they are willing to kill to get what they want and to silence opposition. Who could have guessed?

Well here is a cheery little thought from Fatah.

Fatah issued a statement in Gaza: "Blood for blood and aggression for aggression ... and all the sons of the movement should retaliate to each aggression openly."

As I said. This is turning into a blood feud.

Update: 05 Jan '07 1544z

Two Hamas officials have been kidnapped as violence spread to the West Bank

Gunmen attacked Hamas officials in two separate incidents in the West Bank on Saturday, as weeks of factional violence in the Gaza Strip appeared to be spreading to the West Bank as well.

In the first incident, gunmen stopped the car of Nablus' deputy mayor, Mahdi al-Khamdali, pulled him out and took him away in a separate car, security officials said.

In the West Bank town of Ramallah, meanwhile, gunmen stormed the offices of the Hamas-controlled Interior Ministry, shot the office manager in the legs and took him away, Palestinian security officials said.

The man, also a Hamas supporter, was released in a nearby town and hospitalized, the officials said.

Meanwhile, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared Hamas’ paramilitary militia in the Gaza Strip illegal, raising the stakes in his standoff with the Islamic movement.

Update: 07 Jan '07 0909z

It is a family affair.

Three Palestinians members of the al-Dire family, loyal to Hamas, were killed Saturday by members of the Dughmush family in Gaza City in the continuing internal Palestinian violence and seven people injured.

Two members of the Dughmush family were killed in fighting last week. The family demands that the ruling Islamic Hamas party hand over 18 people to them whom they have accused of involvment in the killings. They have also accused the al-Dire members of involvement as well.

Earlier, Dughmush members had kidnapped four Hamas supporters in Gaza.

Cross Posted at Classical Values