Hamas kills a few more kids...their own

[Gentle Giant]

Sorry for the flip title, a take-off on Daniel's thread about Israel, but the sermon today is not so much about violence as it is about statesmanship, about political process, governance, freedom, the marketplace of ideas, leadership, and vision. Hamas scores squat across the board. And sure, Israel can give back some land, let the water and money flow again, but until the Palestinians replace the terrorist thugs who were merely deemed the lesser of two evils with some real leaders, they won't have a future worth fighting for.

Killings of children raise anger in Gaza
Hamas accused but group denies being involved
By Thanassis Cambanis, Globe Staff | December 12, 2006

JERUSALEM -- Popular anger against the Palestinian leadership, which has been locked in an increasingly bloody internal power struggle, peaked yesterday after the early morning killing of three children in Gaza .

The victims were the sons of a top Palestinian Authority intelligence official who had twice before been the target of assassination attempts. Hamas was widely suspected in the attack, but denied responsibility.

The killings -- the latest attack in an escalating factional clash between Hamas and Fatah militants -- were notable for their brutality in a city where violence is commonplace.

Gunmen sprayed the car of the intelligence official, a Fatah member, with dozens of bullets; he wasn't inside, but the boys, ages 3, 6, and 8, died, along with a bodyguard.

Anger at the leadership rose to levels usually reserved for the Israeli government, and some Palestinian observers predicted that the attack would mark a turning point in the feud that has raged since Hamas won the Palestinian elections last January, wresting control away from the long-dominant Fatah.

"How can you describe such a crime? Even the Israelis wouldn't dare do such a thing," said police Officer Alam Moshtaha, still shouting about the attack 12 hours later at a Gaza café where he sipped coffee with colleagues.

"Damn Abu Mazen, damn Hamas, damn all the factions," Moshtaha said, using the nickname of the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, leader of Fatah. "They are killing us now. We don't know what to do."

Suspicion in Gaza immediately turned to the Muslim group Hamas because the intelligence official, Baha Balousheh, led an anti-Hamas crackdown a decade ago. Hamas, which controls the Palestinian Authority government, condemned the killings.

Fatah, meanwhile, still commands major influence through Abbas and loyal security and intelligence officers in Gaza and the West Bank. Abbas has suggested that he will call for early elections in an effort to topple the Hamas-led government that has spurred an Israeli and Western political and economic boycott of the Palestinian Authority.

Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas has in turn accused Fatah of trying to topple a popularly elected government because Fatah cannot stand to lose its monopoly on power.

Both sides have engaged in tit-for-tat strikes, including several assassinations and attempted killings of top security officials in Gaza. Meanwhile, lawlessness in Palestinian areas has risen to unprecedented levels; according to the Palestinian Independent Commission for Human Rights, internal Palestinian violence has killed 332 people this year.

"The prevailing culture of violence and the factional mentality all contribute to the violence," said Naji Shurab, a political scientist at Gaza's Al-Azhar University.

Shurab said that Fatah and Hamas have proved incapable of sharing power, in the process hastening the "disintegration" of Palestinian society.

Instead of Israel defeating Palestinian militants, he said, "Palestinian hands could bury the Palestinian cause."

For more than two months, Hamas and Fatah officials have been engaged in stop-and-start negotiations to form a national unity government, which could possibly lead to a resumption in foreign aid and perhaps talks with Israel.

However, the power struggle between the two factions is rooted in their very different approach toward Israel. Both groups have militant wings that conduct suicide bombings and other attacks against the Jewish state.

Fatah, however, officially recognizes Israel and has pursued a negotiated two-state solution since the 1993 Oslo Accords.

Hamas, the Islamist group that pioneered the use of suicide bombing in Israel, has a charter committed to the elimination of Israel, and since taking power in March has said it would not abide by previous Palestinian agreements with Israel.

Palestinian institutions, from the security forces to the hospital system, have quickly eroded as the government has found itself without money to pay salaries, and facing an active campaign by Fatah to topple the government from within.

The Gaza killings, however, put a human face on a current of anger that has been seething for months among Palestinians disgusted with the political infighting.

"I have no words. Words stop at the extent of this crime. I am a father who has lost his children," Balousheh, the father of the three slain children, told the Associated Press.

Witnesses said gunmen poured out of a white van and peppered the Balousheh family car with bullets for about four minutes, wounding the driver and as many as five bystanders. Balousheh's sons, Salam, 3, Osama, 6, and Ahmed, 8, were killed, along with a family bodyguard, according to Muna Tarazi, director of the school that the boys attended.

The shooting occurred in a crowded downtown square in the morning as children were walking to school.

Later, thousands marched to the funeral tent, including Fatah supporters who fired guns in the air and burnt tires.

Fatah leaders called on Abbas to dismiss the Hamas government, which they accused of "pushing us with its policies and programs to civil war."

"This is an ugly and inhuman crime perpetrated by a bunch of lowlifes," Abbas said at his West Bank office in Ramallah. "We condemn it vehemently."

The shooting occurred a day after gunmen opened fire on the motorcade of Interior Minister Said Siyam of Hamas. Siyam's car was not hit and no one was injured.

In Gaza, adults wept openly in the streets, and called on their leaders to resign.

"Today is the turning point. The coming days will bring worse and worse atrocities," said police Officer Shadi Kassab, a friend of the slain children's family. "Our leaders should be looking after our destiny. Instead, they are destroying us."

Waleed al-Mudalal, a political scientist at the Islamic University, predicted that the factions would follow a time-tested prescription to pull back from the abyss: uniting against Israel, perhaps even ending the halting truce reached on Nov. 26.

"As long as the occupation is there, the Palestinians will not fall into a civil war," Mudalal said.

"The incident will lead to limited infighting but not a full-scale civil war," he said.

Globe correspondents Ahmed Abu Hamda contributed reporting from Gaza City and Sa'id Ghazali from Jerusalem. Material from the Associated Press also was used.

[groover]

Are you sure there's no way they can yet blame the Jews for this?

[Sandi22]

How does anyone have a grasp on how to deal with men with this wacked out mind set?

I believe that certain causes attract sociopaths, especially when it gives opportunity and legality to act out their perverted urges. Archaeolists are coming to believe this is how it was in Mezzo America, the barbarity of sacrifices recruiting sociopaths into the priesthood.

To kill children to punish and harm the father is abhorrent, and to anyone, one knows, sociopathic. It is an unbelievable barbaric act. The cruelty of it is not anything we can understand. Who could be behind and who would want to follow anyone who would do this? It's beyond our comprehension here in the West. We drop bombs and kill children, which goes to show, none of us are right in our methods of retribution, but somehow the actual targeting of little children because of who their father is, and what he does, is something we just can't grasp.

[Jeffrey Wozniak]

Maybe we're just not as nuanced as they are.

[GoodSpeak]

Oh, Hamas didn't kill anyone, GG.

Israel caused this to happen....or America.


It's multiple choice, you see.

[Gentle Giant]

Israel's high court shows what free nations are capable of, and what Hamas is not.

Israeli court says Palestinians can sue
Some can seek damages over military actions
By Scott Wilson, Washington Post | December 13, 2006

JERUSALEM -- Israel's high court ruled yesterday that Palestinians have the right to sue the Israeli military for damages caused by some of its operations in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, overturning parts of a law that had given the security forces broad immunity to such claims.

Prime minister on defensive over nuclear remark. A9

Meanwhile, in Gaza, gunfire broke out between the armed wings of the Fatah and Hamas movements in the city of Khan Younis a day after the killing of three children of a senior Palestinian intelligence officer.

Four men affiliated with Fatah were injured in the shooting, which may have occurred mistakenly in the hours after Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas deployed security forces under his control across the territory to ensure calm.

The Israeli court's unanimous decision will allow hundreds of private Palestinian lawsuits to proceed in the coming months. The ruling nullifies the 2005 "civil wrongs law" that protected the military from damage claims in conflict zones, a designation that covered nearly all of the occupied territories during the Palestinian uprising that began in September 2000.

The traditionally activist high court is often at odds with Israel's parliament, which since the uprising began has been largely controlled by hawkish parties.

The ruling stipulated that claims would be considered only if the damages were sustained in operations that were not strictly military in nature. Hassan Jabareen, director of Adalah, one of the nine human-rights groups that petitioned the court to overturn the law, said eligible cases would include claims of theft, looting, shootings, and operations found to be illegal under Israeli law.

The court also left in place a provision of the law that excluded any "citizen of an enemy state" or "member of a terrorist organization" from receiving compensation. The court said the petitioners did not bring sufficient evidence to support their argument that such plaintiffs were entitled to damages, leaving the provision open to a future legal challenge.

"One of the major points we were making in this case was that you cannot ensure human rights without allowing suits for damages," said Sarit Michaeli, of the Israeli human-rights group B'Tselem, one of the groups that challenged the law.

Michaeli said that, although the ruling covered "only a portion of those affected" by Israel's military operations, the decision was "still an important one."

Hawkish lawmakers criticized the ruling and requested a delay in its implementation to draft new legislation with the same intent that would survive legal scrutiny. The ruling takes immediate effect and applies retroactively to claims filed since September 2000.

Michael Eitan, a Likud legislator, told reporters the decision threatens "the ability of the security services to operate effectively."

In Gaza, questions remained about the children's shooting, which has brought Hamas and Fatah to the brink of armed confrontation after months of relative calm between them. The three boys were the only sons of Baha Balousheh, an intelligence official with Abbas's Fatah movement.

Some Fatah officials continued suggesting yesterday that Hamas, the rival Islamic movement in charge of the Palestinian Authority, bore responsibility for the shooting. Hamas officials have condemned the attack and denied any role in carrying it out.

[groover]

"Look what the Jews have driven us to!"

Gunmen kill Hamas-linked judge in Gaza

IBRAHIM BARZAK

Associated Press

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip - Palestinian gunmen forced a Hamas commander to his knees and shot him to death early Wednesday outside the courthouse where he worked as an Islamic judge, escalating factional tensions in the Gaza Strip and prompting the Palestinian prime minister to cut short a trip abroad.
The death came two days after three young sons of a Fatah-allied Palestinian intelligence officer were killed in a drive-by shooting, sparking renewed conflict between the rival Hamas and Fatah factions. The violence has reduced chances for a unity government and pushed the two sides closer to civil war.
Palestinian security officials said the slain man was Bassam al-Fara, 30, a judge at the Islamic court and a Hamas commander who belongs to the largest clan in the town of Khan Younis.
In a statement faxed to reporters, Hamas accused a Fatah "death squad" for al-Fara's death.
Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, said the dead man had been a field commander in Hamas' military wing and a prominent figure in the militant Islamic group. He gave no further details about al-Fara's militant activities but pledged to hunt down the killers. "Hamas is not going to forget the blood of its members," Barhoum said.
Fatah spokesman Tawfik Abu Khoussa rejected the accusations. "We condemn all acts of anarchy whatever may be behind them. We call on the brothers in Hamas to stop firing accusations before the investigation," he said.
In Sudan, Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, a top Hamas official, said he would return to Gaza on Thursday, cutting short a trip to Arab and Muslim countries, including Iran and Syria. Haniyeh left Gaza on Nov. 28 on what was expected to be a monthlong trip.
"We need the prime minister to be here now to resolve the internal problems," said Haniyeh's political adviser, Ahmed Youssef.
Haniyeh dismissed fears of the violence in Gaza escalating into a civil war.
"We want to assure you that words such as 'civil war' don't exist in our dictionary. They don't exist in our makeup, in our culture," Haniyeh said in Khartoum. "We will protect the national unity of the Palestinian people and we will thwart any attempt to instigate an inter-Palestinian struggle."
Witnesses to the shooting Wednesday said four gunmen calmly ate breakfast at a food stand as they waited for al-Fara outside the courthouse. When al-Fara emerged from a taxi, three of the men grabbed him and forced him onto his knees, while the fourth shot him. The attack left the sidewalk riddled with bullet holes. The witnesses declined to be identified, fearing for their safety.
Dozens of people gathered at the scene and Palestinian security set up roadblocks. Hamas militants also set up their own roadblocks throughout town, searching for the shooters.
About 1,000 Fatah loyalists, about half of them uniformed security personnel, marched through Gaza to the residence of President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah.
"We tell Abu Mazen the time has come to exercise your powers and stop this farce," said Othman Shalouf, an officer in the National Security Service. Abbas is also known as Abu Mazen.
Some of the protesters fired in the air, but there were no clashes with Hamas militiamen they passed on their route. One demonstrator shouted appeals for Palestinian unity over a loudspeaker.
Students of the al-Azhar university joined the procession, carrying pictures of the three boys killed Monday, as well as Fatah security men killed in internal clashes.
Fatah and Hamas have been locked in a power struggle since Hamas ousted Fatah in parliamentary elections. More than 40 Gazans have died in battles between the two groups since Hamas took power in March.
Seeking to end the standoff, Abbas has been trying to persuade Hamas to join Fatah in a national unity government. But the talks broke down late last month. Tensions heightened after Abbas announced plans over the weekend to call early elections, drawing Hamas accusations that he is plotting a coup.
The latest round of violence was sparked by the deaths Monday of the three young sons of Baha Balousheh, an intelligence officer and Fatah loyalist who helped lead a crackdown on Hamas a decade ago. Balousheh, who was not in the car, escaped two previous Hamas assassination attempts.
Hamas denied involvement in the boys' deaths.

[Gentle Giant]

Memo to Israel: stay the fuck out of it.


Gunmen kill Hamas commander in Gaza
By Ibrahim Barzak, Associated Press Writer | December 13, 2006

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip --Palestinian gunmen ambushed a Hamas commander outside a Gaza courthouse Wednesday, forcing him to his knees and killing him gangland-style in an attack that threatened to push Hamas and Fatah closer to civil war.

The brazen daylight slaying forced Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas to rush home from a trip abroad and dampened already fading hopes for creating a national unity government and renewing peace talks with Israel.

The attack on the Hamas activist was the latest in a wave of bloodshed that began Monday when unknown assailants gunned down the three young sons of a Fatah-allied security officer in Gaza City. Fatah accused Hamas in those killings; the Islamic militant group denied involvement.

Both sides criticized President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah for failing to halt the violence.

On Wednesday morning, four gunmen calmly ate breakfast at a food stand outside the courthouse in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis as they lay in wait for Bassam al-Fara, 30, a judge at the Islamic court, witnesses said.

When al-Fara, who belongs to the largest clan in Khan Younis, emerged from a taxi, three men grabbed him and forced him to his knees, while the fourth shot him, the witnesses said. The attack left his body and the sidewalk riddled with bullet holes. The witnesses declined to be identified, fearing for their safety.

Palestinian security officials set up roadblocks and Hamas militants established checkpoints of their own as they searched for the gunmen.

About 3,000 people turned out for al-Fara's funeral, some firing shots in the air.

Outside the family home, his widow, a black veil covering her face, said her husband had received many death threats, the last on Tuesday, but she would not say from whom.

In a statement faxed to reporters, Hamas accused a Fatah "death squad" of al-Fara's killing. Late Wednesday, Fatah issued a statement saying the killing was a family dispute, and Fatah was not involved.

Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, said al-Fara was a field commander in the Hamas military wing. He pledged to hunt down the killers. "Hamas is not going to forget the blood of its members," Barhoum said.

Fatah spokesman Tawfik Abu Khoussa rejected the accusations. "We condemn all acts of anarchy whatever may be behind them, and we call on the brothers in Hamas to stop firing accusations before the investigation," he said.

Haniyeh, who was in Sudan, said he would return to Gaza on Thursday, cutting short a trip to Arab and Muslim countries including Iran and Syria. Haniyeh left Gaza on Nov. 28 on what was billed as a monthlong trip.

At the al-Fara home in Khan Younis, Hamas lawmaker Salah Bardawil said Abbas was responsible for failing to stop the security agencies from carrying out killings. "We ask the president to live up to his responsibilities before God and the law," he said.

After nightfall, gunmen fired at a Hamas rally at the Nusseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, witnesses said. One demonstrator was hurt.

Fatah activists also criticized Abbas; about 1,000 Fatah supporters marched to his house in Gaza City, demanding action.

Maj. Othman Shalouf, a Palestinian security officer, said Abbas must take charge of the situation.

"The time has come to exercise your powers and stop this farce," he said. "Security agencies are able to control things, but we need a political decision from you." Abbas was at his office in the West Bank city of Ramallah at the time and had no plans to go to Gaza.

Also Wednesday, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian near the Israel-Gaza border fence. The military said he was armed and carrying explosives. A cease-fire has stopped most violence between Israel and Gaza.

Abbas plans a speech to his people on Saturday in which he is expected to outline his plans to hold elections to break the deadlock between Fatah and Hamas.

The Hamas victory in January's parliamentary voting pushed Fatah out of power but led to an economic and political stalemate. Israel, the U.S. and the European Union, which list Hamas as a terror group, all cut off contacts, economic ties and aid to the Palestinian government, further deepening poverty and instability in the West Bank and Gaza.

Hamas is responsible for dozens of suicide bombing attacks in Israel over the past decade. The Islamic group has rejected international demands that it recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept existing peace deals, but Hamas flatly refuses.

Israel has tried to promote the idea of separate peace talks with Abbas, a moderate who was elected a year before the parliamentary vote.