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Palestinian PM Ismail Haniyeh
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| By Israel Insider staff June 16, 2007 |
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Hamas leaders mocked and ridiculed its defeated Fatah rivals, wallowing in unrestrained power on its first day in full control of Gaza. At the same time it was offering amnesty to repentant Fatah fighters, the Islamic terror group's men were rifling through President Mahmoud Abbas' bedroom, looting the homes of his lieutenants and throwing another Fatah gunman off a rooftop.
Hamas freed nine senior Fatah leaders and many lower-ranking activists as an act of "amnesty." Yet Hamas gunmen also entered the seaside compound of Abbas, rifling through the president's belongings, stripping his bedroom, searching his drawers, hunting under his mattress.
One gunman sat at the desk of the Fatah leader, who is also known as Abu Mazen, picked up the phone and pretended to call Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. "Hello, Rice?" the gunman said. "Here we are in Abu Mazen's office. Say hello to Abu Mazen for me."
There was widespread looting of the homes of Fatah leaders.
The Muntada, Abbas?s seafront presidential compound, was the final Fatah fortress to fall. Inside, the walls were charred by smoke and pockmarked by bullet holes, the floors littered with papers and spent rounds. Witnesses reported seeing Hamas fighters remove computers, documents and guns. They helped themselves to Fatah vehicles: those they could not start they towed away, draped in Hamas green. "We have rid ourselves of the traitors, we have rid ourselves of the traitors," shouted Ahid Ramlawi, 45, draped in the Hamas flag amid looted vehicles.
The seafront sweep of bungalows where Palestinian Authority officials used to come for relaxation was also stripped bare. Windows, doors, toilets, furniture, taps, even the light bulbs were gone. The Hamas men took it all in stride: "It?s normal. What the people are taking from the places controlled by Hamas fighters are the spoils of war. And in any case, all of this money has a bad smell to it," said Azem Azrallah, 37.
While victorious green-bandanna wearing Hamas militants posted outside Abbas' villa prevented looters from approaching, the home of former Fatah strongman in Gaza Mohamed Dahlan was not spared. An AFP correspondent witnessed dozens of Palestinians taking everything they could carry from Dahlan?s villa -- furniture, plant pots and even the kitchen sink, complete with the plumbing fixtures.
Cowering in the West Bank, Abbas struggled to assert his authority there, after his forces were evicted unceremoniously from Gaza in just five days. He sought to replace the Hamas prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, with Finance Minister Salam Fayyad as part of a new moderate government. But Hamas scorned the appointment and called it a coup against the democratically elected government.
Hamas, overwhelmingly elected in a 2006 parliament vote, denounced Abbas' moves as a coup. Hamas' leader in exile, Syrian-based Khaled Mashaal, said Abbas has legitimacy as an elected president and said he would co-operate, but warned Fatah against pursuing Hamas supporters.
What is left is a divided situation: the Palestinian territories, on either side of Israel, are now separate entities -- Gaza run by Hamas and backed by radical Islamic states, and the "West Bank" controlled in large measure by the Western-supported Fatah.
Some Palestinians took a grim view of the battles that left more than 110 people dead in a week, and shattered the dream of statehood. "What is happening in Gaza is shameful and a farce," said Salah Juda, his eyes red from fatigue, as he strolled around the streets taking stock of the new reality on the ground. "The only goals are to destroy what belongs to the Palestinian people."
In the Shatti refugee camp in Gaza City, home of Haniya, Abu Said, 45, was just as bitter. "Today there is a Gaza state controlled by Hamas and a state in the West Bank controlled by Fatah," he said. "We have destroyed the Palestinian cause and the dream of the Palestinian state."
Nevertheless, the vanquished Abbas received pledges of support from Israel, the U.S., Egypt, Jordan, the UN and Saudi Arabia. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak that he would assist Abbas, probably by agreeing to release hundreds of millions of dollars in tax funds frozen after Hamas came to power.
Although the government Abbas plans to appoint will be impotent with respect to Gaza, it may stand a chance to elicit the release of foreign aid frozen after Hamas came to power.
The message from the other Arab states was wishy-washy. After a six-hour meeting in Cairo, Arab foreign ministers expressed support for the Fatah leader but also for the Palestinian parliament dominated by Hamas. "We are supporting President Abbas and we are supporting the elected Legislative Assembly (parliament),? Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa told a news conference.
Moussa in a statement called for "an immediate end to the fighting, in the name of all Arabs, and for cooperation," adding: "The fighting is very dangerous for the Palestinian cause."
A joint statement from the 22 Arab League members also condemned what it called "the criminal acts recently committed in Gaza." It called for "a return of the situation in Gaza to what it was before the recent events, the prevention of any acts of violence in the West Bank and the preservation of the unity of Palestinian territory." |
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