Israel Matzav

Getting back to business, Hamas style

Hamas is getting back to business in Gaza, and the first order of business is rounding up and torturing Fatah 'activists.'

Hamas militiamen have rounded up hundreds of Fatah activists on suspicion of "collaboration" with Israel during Operation Cast Lead, Fatah members in the Gaza Strip told The Jerusalem Post on Monday.

They said the Hamas crackdown on Fatah intensified after the cease-fire went into effect eary Sunday morning.

The Fatah members and eyewitnesses said that the detainees were being held in school buildings and hospitals which have been turned by Hamas into make-shift interrogation centers.

Hamas has also renewed house arrest orders that were issued against thousands of Fatah officials and activists in the Gaza Strip shortly after the military operation started.

A Fatah official in Ramallah told the Post that at least 100 of his men have been killed or wounded as a result of the massive crackdown by Hamas. He said that some of the Fatah activists had been brutally tortured by Hamas militiamen.

He said that the perpetrators belonged to Hamas's armed wing, Izaddin al-Kassam, and the movement's Internal Security Force.

According to the Fatah official, at least three of the detainees had their eyes put out by their Hamas interrogators, who accused them of providing Israel during the war with information about the location of Hamas militiamen and leaders.

...

A Fatah activist in Gaza City claimed that as many as 80 members of his faction wee either shot in the legs or had their hands broken for allegedly defying Hamas's house-arrest orders. "What's happening in the Gaza Strip is a new massacre that is being carried out by Hamas against Fatah," he said. "Where were these [Hamas] cowards when the Israeli army was here?"

The activist said that Hamas's security forces have also confiscated cellular phones and computers belonging to thousands of Fatah members and supporters in the Gaza Strip.

Relatives of Abed al-Gharabli, a former Fatah security officer who had spent 12 years in Israeli prison, said that he was kidnapped by a group of Hamas militiamen who shot him in both legs after severely torturing him.

Ziad Abu Hayeh, one of the commanders of Fatah's armed wing, Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, is reported to have lost his sight after Hamas gunmen put out his eyes. Abu Hayeh, according to Fatah activists, was kidnapped from his home in Khan Yunis by Hamas militiamen.

In a number of incidents, the Fatah men said, Hamas militiamen kidnapped Fatah activists while they were attending funerals of people who were killed during the war. In other cases, Fatah activists were detained and shot in the legs after they were spotted smiling in public - an act interpreted by Hamas as an expression of joy over Israel's military offensive.

On Saturday night, three brothers from the Subuh family were abducted by Hamas militiamen and taken to the Abdel Aziz Rantisi Mosque in Khan Yunis, where they were shot in the legs, a local journalist told the Post.

All those nice people who went out and demonstrated for Hamas should read the whole thing and see what nice people they were supporting.

By the way, Fatah's al-Aqsa Brigades claimed today that they shot 102 rockets and 35 mortars at Israel during the war.

This was the first time that Fatah had confirmed that its members had been fighting alongside Hamas during the war. But it's not clear whether the decision to involve the armed Fatah group in the battles was taken by the faction's leadership in the West Bank.

When the military offensive began, some Fatah officials publicly called on their men in the Gaza Strip to participate in the fighting against the IDF.

The Aksa Martyrs Brigades revealed that Ali Hijazi, one of its top commanders who was in charge of cells that fired rockets at Israel, was killed during the operation.

The group said that most of its rocket and mortar attacks were carried out in cooperation with members of Islamic Jihad's armed wing, the Al-Quds Battalions.

After reading the previous story, one has to wonder whether this story is true, or whether it was released in the hope of soothing Hamas' wrath.

If this is what they do to their 'Palestinian brothers,' can you imagine what Hamas would do to any Israelis they caught?

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:05 PM