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The political and power standoff between Palestinian Territories President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas-led Government escalated several notches with security
forces loyal to both parties clashing and burning assets belonging to the
other.
At the heart of the conflict is Abbas’s desire to continue peace dialogue with
Israel that he and his Fattah party had assiduously created. Hamas rejects the
fundamental tenets of peace negotiation—accepting Israel’s right to exist
through the reorganization of the state of Israel, renouncing violence, and
accepting past agreements.
Abbas passed a decree that announced a referendum so people can either
choose peace or a path of conflict. Hamas has dismissed this decree as “a coup
against the Government” and warned that “whoever announced the referendum
should shoulder the responsibility for the dangerous consequences.”
Hamas gunmen attacked the building housing security personnel loyal to Abbas
using rockets and grenades which resulted in a retribution attack in Ramallah
on Hamas targets by Abbas loyalists setting fire to various buildings. Even
though the Parliament building was unoccupied, one floor of a Cabinet building
was fully gutted. Terrorists loyal to the Fattah party fired on firemen from
within the Parliament building preventing a rescue operation. Abbas’s
Presidential Guard arrived later to secure the burnt out Parliament and Cabinet
buildings. On Monday, Fattah gunmen briefly kidnapped Hamas lawmaker and
apparently beat him up—the motive for this incident is unknown.
Abbas declared an emergency ordering people off the streets in what is being
seen as an increasingly bitter conflict with Hamas supporters in the West Bank
and Abbas loyalists in Gaza.
Earlier, Israel launched an air raid in Northern Gaza against a vehicle
carrying 2 Islamic Jihad terrorists armed with deadly Katyusha rockets. While
the attack killed the terrorists and destroyed the rockets, it also killed 9
civilians including 2 children. Blaming Israeli artillery fire for killing 7
pleasure seekers on a Gaza beach, the Hamas fired 6 rockets at Israel ending a
16-month old truce. Hamas vowed to send more rockets with longer ranges at
Israel, but it was impossible to confirm whether the rockets actually landed in
Israel. In a sharp departure from earlier hawkish behavior, Israeli Defense
Minister announced his “deepest regret at the deaths of innocent people.” While
Israel concedes that the Hamas has largely respected the truce, it accuses the
terrorist group of helping other terrorist groups to fire rockets from the
territories it vacated in Gaza. Israel has even threatened to assassinate
Hamas’s Prime Minister Ismail Haniya if they continued this cycle of violence.
It has even
captured a Hamas “commander” violating ceasefire accords claiming that he
was going to be released by Hamas.
Most world powers are not supporting the Hamas Government withdrawing
non-humanitarian aid. Iran has been trying to raise awareness on the suffering
of Palestinians with other Muslim countries but so far has received little
support. Indian communists have asked Indians to contribute monies to help the
Palestinians but the success of their efforts is not known.
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