Palestinian Civil War Watch - 15

I suppose we should get the optimism out of the way first. The Mayor of Gaza thinks the fighting won't last because it is brother fighting brother.

The factor preventing an all-out civil war in Gaza is that the Palestinians fighting against each other come from the same families, the mayor of Gaza City said.

In many cases there are families in which each sibling supports a different political faction.

“They might fight in the streets but at night they go to the same home,” Mayor Majid Abu Ramadan told The Media Line. “We’re counting on these family ties to prevent people from fighting.”

Abu Ramadan is counting on what he called the silent majority of the Palestinians to urge the fighting parties to lay down their arms.

He said there was an increasing movement in Gaza where families were calling their sons out of the fighting factions.

What about feuds between families? I covered some of that in Radio Wars.

Well that is the good news. The rest is just another depressing day in Gaza. The Gazans have rocketed visiting New York City Council members. You can't buy the kind of publicity they will get from that effort.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Visiting New York City Council members got more than a description of how Israelis deal with almost daily rocket attacks from Gaza on Tuesday. They experienced one.

Council Speaker Christine Quinn said the delegation of 11 was in the office of Eli Moyal, the mayor of Sderot, an Israeli town of 20,000 just outside Gaza, talking about the security situation. Then the town alarm went off, warning of an incoming rocket.

"The mayor stood up and said, 'There's a rocket coming, everybody has to leave,'" she said.

No injuries were reported.

Hamas and Fatah are again trading fire. I wonder who made the most profit?

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Hamas and Fatah security officials traded fire at Gaza's border with Egypt on Tuesday as Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh passed through on his way to reconciliation talks between his Hamas movement and the rival Fatah group in Saudi Arabia, witnesses said.

There is a really nice big piture of Haniyeh with the article. He does not have a happy face.

Haniyeh, who was in a VIP hall and not in the immediate area of the firefight, crossed to Egypt unharmed, they said. He had arrived at the border crossing under heavy guard after traveling along a route lined with hundreds of Hamas gunmen on foot and in jeeps.

Although Haniyeh expressed confidence that the reconciliation talks would end months of Palestinian infighting, Tuesday's gunbattle was an ominous sign for the meeting in Mecca, which analysts have said could be the two sides' last chance to avert civil war.

The 10-minute gunbattle at the border terminal caused no injuries, said the witnesses, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of safety concerns.

So on the way to peace talks they have a nice little battle. Good omen.

Fatah has siezed a six story Baptist Church. Has Jimmy Carter been informed?

A Gaza church was seized by the Palestinian Fatah group this weekend during one of the deadliest fighting in nearly two months.

Palestinian Authority police broke into the Gaza Baptist Church when church leaders refused to hand over the building key on Feb. 2, reported Open Doors. The police took positions on the sixth floor using the church as a watch point.

Church pastor Hanna Massad described the crisis as “the worst situation we ever went through in Gaza.”

Massad and congregants fear that if PA police fire at Hamas militants from the church top then Hamas militants will retaliate and the church building will be severely damaged.

“Christians and Muslims in Gaza are caught in the crossfire,” said Open Doors USA president/CEO Dr. Carl Moeller in a statement Monday. “And it’s getting worse…It is so vital that the Gaza Baptist Church remains open so ministry can be carried out to those who are even now more marginalized.”

Christians have been leaving "Palestine" in droves. Bethlehem is now minority Christian.

And now for real murder and mayhem. A Palestinian news source reports one dead and three injured.

The Al Qassam brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, said that one of its fighters was killed, and three others were injured, after being attacked by gunmen in the center of Gaza City.

They seem to have a real nice photoshopped picture of some Palestinian gunmen. I guess the stock photos are not dramatic enough.

The Palestinians have finally killed a Palestinian they have been trying to kill for a while. Abu Karsh.

Hamas blamed Fateh for the attack and said that Fateh gunmen fired at Mohammad Dieb Abu Karsh, 23, and killed him, three other members were injured, one seriously.

Eyewitnesses reported that Abu Karsh was driving his car near Al Saraya compound in Gaza city when gunmen opened fire at him.

They have been trying to kill him since at least May 16th of last year.

No doubt practice makes perfect.

Cross Posted at Classical Values