UN-Truth

There is something stunningly awful about this Hamas-Fatah-Israel story over the past 12 hours or so.

I’m not sure it doesn’t exceed the Hamas-Fatah battles that took place in Gaza in mid-June 2007, when first Hamas, then Fatah, each threw members of each other’s groups off of high-rise buildings to their deaths. There was also a reported spate of “knee-cappings” at the time.

On 25 July, a bomb explosion killed a number of Hamas security men, and a little girl. Hamas blamed Fatah — and one Hamas member said that those responsible should be hung and shot, at the same time.

Hamas has gone after the perpetrators with massive force.

Both Hamas (in Gaza) and Palestinian Authority Security Forces (Fatah in the West Bank) have arrested each other’s members.

I even saw one report that the PA had set up CHECKPOINTS in the northern West Bank to find Hamas members.

Then, Hamas moved against the Fatah-affiliated Hilles clan in Gaza, blaming them for the car bombing.

Last night, at the request of the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and his Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, and at the simultaneous request of Egypt, Israel agreed to allow some 188 Fatah members — all or most of them from the Fatah-loyal Hilles clan — to flee from the Hamas security forces who were chasing them in hot pursuit, and to allow them to cross into Israel.

Apparently the aim of those fleeing Gaza was to seek “asylum” in the West Bank.

The Israeli decision was taken after Israeli forces first shot at the fleeing asylum seekers, hitting some of them — and some of the Hamas security forces who were pursuing them as well. Hamas gunfire wounded others.

Then, the Israeli forces ordered these “asylum-seekers” to strip-search, to reassure the Israeli soldiers.

The stripped men were then hand-cuffed and blind-folded.

This morning, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas apparently changed his mind, and said he did not want these Gazans to be brought to the West Bank, so Israel announced they would be sent back to the Gaza Strip.

A first group of some 30 persons was sent back, and then promptly arrested by Hamas.

In a “humanitarian” gesture, the Israeli Defense Ministry announced that those being treated for their wounds in hospital would be allowed to stay until their treatment was over, and then they would be sent back to the Gaza Strip.

These people are Fatah members, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is not only the elected head of the Palestinian Authority, he is also the head of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), and he is head of Fatah as well. It is an unconsionable move for him to have requested their admission into Israel, then requested their return to Gaza, where they are sure to be treated roughly by Hamas.

These people are refugess, already, and — because they are Palestinian refugees in one of UNRWA’s field of operations, they are UNRWA’s responsibility as well. No comment has been made by UNRWA.

These people are asylum seekers, and as such fall under certain protocols of humanitarian law. One question of particular relevance, which has not been answered, is whether or not they agree to be sent back to Gaza.

There is also something wrong about permitting these stripped, blindfolded and handcuffed prisoners — refugees, and persons living under a military occupation — to be photographed for public display. This violates the Geneva Conventions.

This evening, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) announced that it has petitioned to Israel’s Supreme Court to keep these asylum seekers from being returned to Gaza.

Haaretz reported that “Israel sent the group back on Sunday after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad withdrew an earlier request for Defense Minister Ehud Barak to allow the Gazans entry to Israel and then to transfer them to the West Bank … The infighting with Hamas left at least nine people dead and more than 80 wounded. Egypt was also a party to the PA’s request on Saturday for Israel to allow entry to the men, who belong to the Hilles clan which is affiliated with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah faction. A spokesman for Barak said the wounded would remain in Israel for treatment and the rest would be returned to the Hamas-held territory. Fatah leader Hussein Al-Shaikh, the senior civil affairs official in the Palestinian Authority, said: ‘We are discussing with the Israelis how to allow the people to return to Gaza’. Defense sources said it was likely that Fayyad and Abbas’ backtracking is connected to power struggles within Fatah. The security establishment was examining on Sunday morning ways to ensure the safe return of the remaining men who fled Gaza. ‘After the occupation refused to receive most of those who fled Gaza, dozens have returned and the Palestinian police have taken them into custody’, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said. Saturday’s fighting erupted when Hamas forces surrounded the Shejaia district of Gaza City to arrest 11 people suspected of a role in bombings that killed seven people, including five Hamas militants, on July 25″. The full article can be read on Haaretz here .

The Jerusalem Post reported Sunday evening that “Nimr Hammad, a political adviser to PA President Mahmoud Abbas, had said anyone wanted by Hamas would be allowed to remain in the West Bank for their safety, while the rest will be returned “to their families and their homes.” He would not say how many were included in each group or offer an explanation for the move. In any case, Hamas decided to arrest the entire group that was sent back to the Strip. The decision to allow the group to enter Israel was made in coordination with the political echelon. Israel said it had been Abbas who originally asked to let them through. However, it was believed that the Palestinian leader might fear that allowing the men to stay in the West Bank would be handing Hamas a victory while weakening his own supporters in Gaza. The Palestinians were returned Sunday via the Erez border crossing and the IDF boosted troop deployment in the area out of concerns Hamas would repeat Saturday’s mortar and sniper attacks on the group … Toward Saturday night, the 188 clan members approached the border fence with Israel near the Nahal Oz fuel crossing, laid down their weapons and asked soldiers to allow them to cross over … Wary Israeli troops allowed them to cross the heavily guarded border, stripping them first to make sure none were concealing weapons or wearing explosives. Soldiers prepared stretchers, and ambulances rushed the badly wounded to nearby hospitals. Mortar shells landed nearby as the Palestinians crossed into Israel. One of the wounded men, Shadi Hilles, was hospitalized Sunday morning in Ashkelon. He said he was wounded when Hamas attacked the clan’s compound with shoulder-launched rockets and mortars, forcing him to crawl through nearby fields to safety. ‘We crawled to the border, that was our solution, and I think we stayed at the border for two or three hours until the army let the injured enter’, he said. IDF sources said the group was allowed into Israel out of ‘humanitarian concerns’ that they would be slaughtered by Hamas”. The full JPost report can be read here .

YNET news website reported earlier Sunday that “Hamas’ media outlets reported that Abbas and Israel were not interested in some of the Fatah members who fled to Israel. PA officials said that the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah was displeased with the Fatah men’s escape from the Strip and that the return of another group to Gaza would be considered in the coming days. ‘We are against emigration within the PA territories, regardless of its reasons’, a PA official said. Israeli security sources expressed their objection to the transfer of the Fatah men to the West Bank, explaining that these were people who were involved in terror activities against Israel in the past and that such a move would harm Israel’s defense interests”. The full YNET report can be read here .

Earlier, Ali Waked reported on YNET that this rout of the large pro-Fatah family was the culmination of the Hamas take-over of Gaza in mid-June 2007. Until now, Waked wrote, Hamas has largely left unchallenged other Palestinian groups. Now, he said, Hamas is asserting its full control in Gaza.

Then, the Associated Press (AP) added this from Ramallah on Sunday night: “The escape posed a dilemma for Abbas. After the Hamas takeover of Gaza last summer, he agreed to resettle some 250 of his Gaza loyalists in the West Bank. It’s been a costly arrangement — the refugees each get $350 a month, in addition to government salaries, and Abbas’ cash-strapped government covers rent for dozens of the most senior among them. The 2007 exodus also sent a message that Fatah is abandoning Gaza to Hamas. Abbas wanted to send a different message this time, aides said. ‘Fatah officials in Gaza should stay in their posts and should not leave Gaza to Hamas’, Fahmi Zaghrir, a West Bank spokesman for Fatah, said Sunday. An exception would be made for those wanted by Hamas, added Nimr Hamad, an Abbas adviser. In Jordan for talks on Sunday, Abbas called for dialogue to solve the dispute. He said the Palestinians must ‘continue to hope, even if we fight between each other or have differences’. At least three refugees won assurances they’ll be able to settle in the West Bank, among them Ahmed Hilles, the clan leader, and two other’s on the Hamas wanted list. Negotiations between the clan and Abbas’ office over the fate of about a dozen others were continuing Sunday.
Ahmed Hilles was recovering in an Israeli hospital Sunday from a bullet wound in his leg. Hilles had long been one of the most powerful Fatah figures in Gaza, along with former strongman Mohammed Dahlan.
Unlike Dahlan, who had frequent run-ins with Hamas, Hilles was seen as a mediator. He is a longtime friend of Ahmed Jaberi, head of Hamas’ military wing, and the two were imprisoned together in Israel.
As a result, Hamas forces largely left the Hilles clan alone and in possession of its weapons after the 2007 takeover…” This AP report can be read in full here .

Maan News Agency reported Sunday night that in fact 11 people were killed and 107 injured in Saturday’s battle in the Shuja’iya neighborhood of Gaza, which is near the Nahal Oz fuel transfer crossing operated by Israel where the “asylum-seekers” were allowed into Israel.

Filed under: Boundaries & Borders, Egypt, Gaza, Human Rights, International Law, Israel, Middle East Peace Process, Palestine & Palestinians, Torture