Post by dustdevil28 on Jun 19, 2007 9:48:28 GMT -8
Looks like that group that won the elections are now thanking Gazan's who wish to flee the violence by shooting indiscriminantly into the crowds.
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GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Hundreds of terrified Gazans fleeing Hamas rule, including two people wounded nearly 24 hours earlier, were trapped Tuesday in a squalid tunnel at a main crossing with Israel, hoping to gain permission to pass through Israeli territory to sanctuary in the West Bank.
Fearing death or persecution, Gazans flocked to the Erez passage after Hamas militants wrested control of the coastal strip from Fatah security forces last week. Israel, which has no interest in letting masses of Gazans pass through its territory and possibly destabilize the quieter West Bank, has refused to let most of them in, saying their lives were not in danger.
It took nearly 24 hours before Israel allowed in two people wounded when Palestinian militants attacked the crossing Monday with gunfire and grenades. Three other Palestinians who had been hospitalized in Gaza were also let into Israel for medical treatment, rescue and military officials said.
The Israeli army had no information on the identities of the wounded. But the man killed in Monday night's shootout was a nephew of a notorious Fatah warlord who was killed by a Hamas mob during last week's fighting.
A food aid shipment also rolled into Gaza Tuesday, the first let in by Israel since the Hamas takeover.
About 600 people were holed up in the long, concrete tunnel that leads to the Israeli side of the crossing. Around 100 people belonged to Fatah security forces, but the rest were civilians, seeking a better life in the West Bank, which is separated from Gaza by Israel.
To maintain order at Erez, Israeli tanks and armored vehicles rolled up to the Palestinian side of the crossing Tuesday, chasing away cars parked next to the tunnel, including vehicles belonging to journalists. One tank parked at the crossing entrance, blocking people from leaving or entering the tunnel. Army bulldozers blocked the road leading to the terminal with sand, witnesses said.
Women, children and young men sat between two high concrete walls about 10 yards apart, looking tired and sweaty. Suitcases and trash were strewn on the ground. Some families sat on mats, others on bare concrete. A breeze barely stirred between the walls and the tunnel, which has no toilets, reeked of urine and sweat.
Some people said they had barely eaten in the past three days.
On Monday, gunmen allied with Hamas disguised themselves as fleeing civilians and hurled hand grenades at Israeli soldiers and Palestinians at Erez, killing a relative of a slain Fatah warlord, and injuring 15 other Palestinians.
Earlier, two injured men with blood-soaked bandages were among those seen sleeping on the bare concrete, and one appeared to have been shot.
"We are imprisoned between two walls and they are firing at us from behind," a bearded man in the Erez tunnel told AP Television News. "We're calling on ... all the (Palestinian) authorities to protect these people and children." Like many travelers, he declined to identify himself, fearing for his safety.
Israel, which has sophisticated weapons-screening equipment in place at Erez, said it was only letting the staff of international organizations, people with special permission and humanitarian cases to cross.
"We don't think that all of them there are threatened," Nir Peres, a military liaison officer, told Israel Radio.
"There is a clear conflict between security needs and humanitarian considerations," Peres said. "It's clear that we don't want to see in the West Bank (Fatah-allied) Al Aqsa militants who carried out attacks in the past."
Israel allowed about 50 senior Fatah officials and their families to cross into the West Bank from Gaza over the weekend, citing threats to their safety. Some 200 other Fatah officials are in Egypt, trying to get to the West Bank via Jordan, Fatah officials said.
The situation at the Erez crossing was expected to be one of the first issues new Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak will tackle. The former prime minister and military chief of staff was installed as defense minister in a ceremony Tuesday.
Hamas declared a general amnesty for Fatah fighters shortly after it vanquished them in Gaza, but frightened civilians and security officers have not been reassured. Checkpoints have been put up on the road to the crossing to arrest suspects trying to leave, and gunmen inside the crossing have been allowed to fire over their heads.
On a Hamas Web site, a deck of cards showing four pictures of Fatah leaders was emblazoned across the home page. "Revenge is coming no matter what," was written under the cards showing former Gaza strongman Mohammed Dahlan, who is exiled in the West Bank, and three other leaders. One photo — of assassinated Samih Madhoun, who was killed by a Hamas mob last week — was crossed out.
Abu Mustafa, a Fatah fighter seeking to leave Gaza through Erez, said he feared he, too, was a marked man.
"They forgave people before, and later killed them. There's no way we'll go back," he said.
Another security officer, who did not give his name for fear of retribution, accused Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of not doing enough to bring terrified Gazans into the West Bank.
"We don't want to go back to Haniyeh, and Abu Mazen (Abbas) won't let us in," he said.
Sufian Abu Zaydeh, a former top Fatah official in Gaza, said the Palestinians "need to decide whose lives are really threatened and who doesn't want to be in Gaza and wants to live in a different place."
"There are also those who pose a security risk to Israel and can't enter Israel," he told Israel's Army Radio.
A Fatah leader in the West Bank, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the matter, said Abbas was not interested in having Gazans stream out of the coastal strip and leave it an undiluted Hamas stronghold.
Moshon Vaknin, an Israeli paramedic sent to examine people wounded in Monday's attack at Erez, told the AP that he and his colleagues would set up a field clinic to determine how seriously people were hurt and whether any should be transferred to Israel for medical treatment.
Naim Elian arrived at the passage with the body of his dead infant son just as the shooting began. The 3-month-old boy, Mahmoud, died in an Israeli hospital after heart surgery, and the gunbattle held up his father's sad journey back to Gaza.
"I want to go back so I can bury my son," he told AP Television News.
Hours later he was let into the strip through a separate gate, said Peres, the Israeli military liaison.
Hamas has deployed gunmen along the eight-mile border road separating Egypt from Gaza, and at the Rafah border crossing, to keep people from fleeing into Egypt.
Gaza's borders have been sealed since the street battles that led to Hamas' conquest of Gaza broke out last week. On Tuesday, Israel let in a first food aid shipment, from the U.N. World Food Program — 10 truckloads of food and two trucks carrying medical supplies. The WFP ordinarily feeds 250,00 Gazans, and Shlomo Dror, an Israeli military spokesman, said aid would continue to flow barring Hamas "interference."
Facing growing international isolation, Hamas called for a "national dialogue" with its Fatah foes.
"We are still prepared for a brotherly, serious and responsible national dialogue," Khalil al-Haya, a prominent Hamas lawmaker, told a news conference.
But in the West Bank, an Abbas spokesman ruled out talks with Hamas.
"Before any dialogue, Hamas must withdraw its armed people from all the places they occupied and give back the power to the legitimate authority," spokesman Nabil Abu Rdeneh said.
After the Gaza takeover, Abbas dismantled his Fatah group's coalition government with Hamas and installed a new Cabinet. Hamas has refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of the new government, and insists the old government remains in place.
This rift has in effect left the Palestinians with two governments — one in the West Bank that seeks peace with Israel and the Hamas leadership in Gaza, which is sworn to the Jewish state's destruction
news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070619/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_palestinians
..................................................
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Hundreds of terrified Gazans fleeing Hamas rule, including two people wounded nearly 24 hours earlier, were trapped Tuesday in a squalid tunnel at a main crossing with Israel, hoping to gain permission to pass through Israeli territory to sanctuary in the West Bank.
Fearing death or persecution, Gazans flocked to the Erez passage after Hamas militants wrested control of the coastal strip from Fatah security forces last week. Israel, which has no interest in letting masses of Gazans pass through its territory and possibly destabilize the quieter West Bank, has refused to let most of them in, saying their lives were not in danger.
It took nearly 24 hours before Israel allowed in two people wounded when Palestinian militants attacked the crossing Monday with gunfire and grenades. Three other Palestinians who had been hospitalized in Gaza were also let into Israel for medical treatment, rescue and military officials said.
The Israeli army had no information on the identities of the wounded. But the man killed in Monday night's shootout was a nephew of a notorious Fatah warlord who was killed by a Hamas mob during last week's fighting.
A food aid shipment also rolled into Gaza Tuesday, the first let in by Israel since the Hamas takeover.
About 600 people were holed up in the long, concrete tunnel that leads to the Israeli side of the crossing. Around 100 people belonged to Fatah security forces, but the rest were civilians, seeking a better life in the West Bank, which is separated from Gaza by Israel.
To maintain order at Erez, Israeli tanks and armored vehicles rolled up to the Palestinian side of the crossing Tuesday, chasing away cars parked next to the tunnel, including vehicles belonging to journalists. One tank parked at the crossing entrance, blocking people from leaving or entering the tunnel. Army bulldozers blocked the road leading to the terminal with sand, witnesses said.
Women, children and young men sat between two high concrete walls about 10 yards apart, looking tired and sweaty. Suitcases and trash were strewn on the ground. Some families sat on mats, others on bare concrete. A breeze barely stirred between the walls and the tunnel, which has no toilets, reeked of urine and sweat.
Some people said they had barely eaten in the past three days.
On Monday, gunmen allied with Hamas disguised themselves as fleeing civilians and hurled hand grenades at Israeli soldiers and Palestinians at Erez, killing a relative of a slain Fatah warlord, and injuring 15 other Palestinians.
Earlier, two injured men with blood-soaked bandages were among those seen sleeping on the bare concrete, and one appeared to have been shot.
"We are imprisoned between two walls and they are firing at us from behind," a bearded man in the Erez tunnel told AP Television News. "We're calling on ... all the (Palestinian) authorities to protect these people and children." Like many travelers, he declined to identify himself, fearing for his safety.
Israel, which has sophisticated weapons-screening equipment in place at Erez, said it was only letting the staff of international organizations, people with special permission and humanitarian cases to cross.
"We don't think that all of them there are threatened," Nir Peres, a military liaison officer, told Israel Radio.
"There is a clear conflict between security needs and humanitarian considerations," Peres said. "It's clear that we don't want to see in the West Bank (Fatah-allied) Al Aqsa militants who carried out attacks in the past."
Israel allowed about 50 senior Fatah officials and their families to cross into the West Bank from Gaza over the weekend, citing threats to their safety. Some 200 other Fatah officials are in Egypt, trying to get to the West Bank via Jordan, Fatah officials said.
The situation at the Erez crossing was expected to be one of the first issues new Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak will tackle. The former prime minister and military chief of staff was installed as defense minister in a ceremony Tuesday.
Hamas declared a general amnesty for Fatah fighters shortly after it vanquished them in Gaza, but frightened civilians and security officers have not been reassured. Checkpoints have been put up on the road to the crossing to arrest suspects trying to leave, and gunmen inside the crossing have been allowed to fire over their heads.
On a Hamas Web site, a deck of cards showing four pictures of Fatah leaders was emblazoned across the home page. "Revenge is coming no matter what," was written under the cards showing former Gaza strongman Mohammed Dahlan, who is exiled in the West Bank, and three other leaders. One photo — of assassinated Samih Madhoun, who was killed by a Hamas mob last week — was crossed out.
Abu Mustafa, a Fatah fighter seeking to leave Gaza through Erez, said he feared he, too, was a marked man.
"They forgave people before, and later killed them. There's no way we'll go back," he said.
Another security officer, who did not give his name for fear of retribution, accused Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of not doing enough to bring terrified Gazans into the West Bank.
"We don't want to go back to Haniyeh, and Abu Mazen (Abbas) won't let us in," he said.
Sufian Abu Zaydeh, a former top Fatah official in Gaza, said the Palestinians "need to decide whose lives are really threatened and who doesn't want to be in Gaza and wants to live in a different place."
"There are also those who pose a security risk to Israel and can't enter Israel," he told Israel's Army Radio.
A Fatah leader in the West Bank, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the matter, said Abbas was not interested in having Gazans stream out of the coastal strip and leave it an undiluted Hamas stronghold.
Moshon Vaknin, an Israeli paramedic sent to examine people wounded in Monday's attack at Erez, told the AP that he and his colleagues would set up a field clinic to determine how seriously people were hurt and whether any should be transferred to Israel for medical treatment.
Naim Elian arrived at the passage with the body of his dead infant son just as the shooting began. The 3-month-old boy, Mahmoud, died in an Israeli hospital after heart surgery, and the gunbattle held up his father's sad journey back to Gaza.
"I want to go back so I can bury my son," he told AP Television News.
Hours later he was let into the strip through a separate gate, said Peres, the Israeli military liaison.
Hamas has deployed gunmen along the eight-mile border road separating Egypt from Gaza, and at the Rafah border crossing, to keep people from fleeing into Egypt.
Gaza's borders have been sealed since the street battles that led to Hamas' conquest of Gaza broke out last week. On Tuesday, Israel let in a first food aid shipment, from the U.N. World Food Program — 10 truckloads of food and two trucks carrying medical supplies. The WFP ordinarily feeds 250,00 Gazans, and Shlomo Dror, an Israeli military spokesman, said aid would continue to flow barring Hamas "interference."
Facing growing international isolation, Hamas called for a "national dialogue" with its Fatah foes.
"We are still prepared for a brotherly, serious and responsible national dialogue," Khalil al-Haya, a prominent Hamas lawmaker, told a news conference.
But in the West Bank, an Abbas spokesman ruled out talks with Hamas.
"Before any dialogue, Hamas must withdraw its armed people from all the places they occupied and give back the power to the legitimate authority," spokesman Nabil Abu Rdeneh said.
After the Gaza takeover, Abbas dismantled his Fatah group's coalition government with Hamas and installed a new Cabinet. Hamas has refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of the new government, and insists the old government remains in place.
This rift has in effect left the Palestinians with two governments — one in the West Bank that seeks peace with Israel and the Hamas leadership in Gaza, which is sworn to the Jewish state's destruction
news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070619/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_palestinians
