Showdown at the Gaza Tombstone O.K. Corral!
May 19, 2006
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
The two terrorist groups that have long vied for the Palestinian people’s favor have been Hamas and Fatah, with Fatah being the lesser of two evils, even though they are the most corrupt politically.
These next few weeks in the Gaza Strip, where Hamas is much the stronger of the two, and in the West Bank, where Fatah might have a slight edge, is going to have a dramatic influence on which route the government takes in his relationship to Israel.
Whatever comes out of their conflict, that is, who ends up on top, will determine if the attitude toward Israel is “Miniscule compromise now, and kill them all as quickly as possible” or “Negotiate with them now, and kill them all when it is convenient.”
The situation is well described in the DEBKAfile Report, which follows.
Begin DEBKAfile Report
DEBKAfile Exclusive: Hamas parades its new militia – The Implementation Force – Wednesday, May 17 – to provoke a showdown with Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah in his absence
May 18, 2006, 12:16 AM (GMT+02:00)
Our intelligence sources report 8,000 armed men marched in the streets and squares of Gaza – more than double the 3,000 reported by the news agencies. The force is made up of 6,000 Hamas operatives and 2,000 Popular Resistance Committees members.
Although the Hamas-led Palestinian government complained the Palestinian Authority’s Fatah-dominated security forces had failed to police Palestinian streets and end the chaos, the marching Hamas militia conducted itself less like a police force and more like an army: its troops carried heavy machine guns, RPGs, mortars and explosives.
Sources familiar with the Gaza Strip disclose control of Gaza’s 40 squares and intersections is the key to a grip on the entire territory.
Hamas militiamen spent Wednesday seizing all these strategic points, without disturbing the Fatah-dominated policemen on their regular beats, figuring they posed no threat.
By evening Hamas’s grip was complete.
Should Fatah leader Muhammed Dahlan want to travel south from Gaza City to Khan Younis, he will have to pass through ten Hamas-dominated positions. If ordered by Abu Mazen to deploy in the southern town of Rafah, the Palestinian Authority’ s Preventive Security Force would have to brave 20 Hama
s positions and risk an armed clash at each one.
When Wednesday night, Abu Mazen finally woke up and ordered the PA security force to spread out across the Gaza Strip, very few obeyed him.
The order c ame
at the end of a day during which none of his Fatah adherents challenged the Hamas Implementation Force as illegal, or its takeover of the Gaza Strip. Therefore, barring a dramatic reversal, Abu Mazen may find by Thursday morning that he has been left high and dry in the fateful contest for control of the territory. But the slightest spark could cause the standoff to veer out of control between the warring Palestinian factions.
The situation is already heavily charged. In the last 24 hours, 20 exclusive devices have caused 7 Hamas deaths in the Gaza Strip.
Since Tuesday, two Hamas operatives were shot dead in Gaza by unidentified gunmen in hits that are part of the power struggle between Hamas and Fatah.
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