IDF knew where Deif was for 3 days, held off due to cease fire; Hamas spox son-in-law killed by IDF
The IDF knew where Mohammed Deif was hiding for three days last week, but did not kill him because a 'cease fire' was in effect. Today, with the 'cease fire' (and maybe Deif) long gone, the IDF killed the
27-year old son-in-law of Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum.
The IDF continues to show that Hamas's terrorist leaders are not
immune in the war they started on Israel, as the son-in-law of Hamas
spokesperson Fawzi Barhoum was killed on Monday.
Abdullah Mortaja, the son-in-law of the Hamas leader, was killed in a strike by the IDF. Yedioth Aharonoth reported on his connection to Barhoum.
The 27-year-old was a freelance journalist, who himself previously
worked in the propaganda machine of the terrorist organization Hamas's
Al-Aqsa TV station, according to AFP.
The news source added that Hamas medical officials claimed Mortaja
was hit by tank fire in the Sheijaya neighborhood in eastern Gaza City.
...
Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif was targeted in a strike last
Tuesday night, in which his wife and two of his children died. There are
conflicting reports, with Hamas claiming he survived, but not saying
anything about his condition.
According to recent reports Sunday, Israel knew the location of the
arch-terrorist Deif as many as three days ahead of the strike, but chose not to act on the rare opportunity to take him out due to the ceasefire.
So when are we taking out the bunker at Shifa already?
Labels: cease fire, Fawzi Barhoum, Gaza, Hamas, IDF, Mohammed Deif, Operation Protective Edge, Shifa Hospital
PA official visits Auschwitz, Hamas complains it 'served Zionists'
A senior adviser to '
moderate' '
Palestinian' President
Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen visited the Auschwitz death camp late last month, and a Hamas spokesman is complaining that the visit '
served the Zionists' by marketing a 'false Zionist alleged tragedy.'
Ziad al-Bandak, an adviser to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas had made a rare visit by a Palestinian official to the site of the Auschwitz death camp late last month.
"It was an unjustified and unhelpful visit that served only the Zionist occupation," said Fawzi Barhoum, a spokesman for Hamas. Hamas rejects Israel's existence and interim peace accords reached by Abbas's more moderate Fatah group with Israel.
Barhoum further called Bandak's visit to Auschwitz, a camp where the Nazis killed 1.5 million people, most of them Jews but also other Polish citizens, during World War Two, as "a marketing of a false Zionist alleged tragedy."
He said he saw this as coming "at the expense of a real Palestinian tragedy," alluding to Israel's control over territory where Palestinians live and seek to establish a state.
That last paragraph sounds a lot like
Obama in Buchenwald, doesn't it?
And in case you're wondering where Abu Mazen stands on this issue,
he likely agrees with Barhoum:
Abu Mazen is a Holocaust denier. He wrote his doctoral thesis in 1982 at the Moscow Institute for Oriental Studies. The heading of his doctoral thesis was: "Zionist leadership and the Nazis." The introduction dealt, among other topics, with a loaded issue: How many Jews perished in the Holocaust. In the Soviet period, especially in the anti-Israel institute that Abu Mazen attended, they often dealt with such questions. The Soviet Union, more than any other country, was addicted to Holocaust denial. The victims were not recognized by their origin, but rather by their nationality. And this is what the diligent researcher Abu Mazen wrote:World War Two caused the death of 40 million people from different parts of the world. Ten million Germans, 20 million Soviets, and more…Rumors at the end of the war said that 6 million of the world's Jews were among the victims in the war of extermination that was waged against the Jewish people and later on against other peoples. The fact is that no one can confirm this number or deny it. The number could be 6 million, but it could be much smaller, perhaps even smaller than one million.
"Many researchers who discussed the number reached the unconventional conclusion that it is no more than several hundred thousand," he wrote. Later on, Abu Mazen quotes a Holocaust denier who claimed that "at first the Zionists spoke about 12 million Jews who were killed in the death camps. They later narrowed the number down to 6 and to 4 million. It is not possible that the Germans murdered more Jews than existed in the world at the time." He quotes another Holocaust denier who counted 896,000 Jewish victims in all. Abu Mazen has consistently refused to distance himself from his thesis.
But I'm sure that once the 'Palestinians' of Hamas and Fatah reunite and get a state, they'll drop all this nonsense.
What could go wrong?
Labels: Abu Mazen, Auschwitz, Fatah, Fawzi Barhoum, Hamas, Holocaust denial
Hamas preparing for imminent 'armed uprising'
Egyptian daily al-Masry al-Youm reports on preparations in Gaza for an
imminent armed uprising. No, not against Hamas. Against Israel.
“[Fatah] realized the bilateral talks led them to nowhere. This is why they will try a unilateral move with the UN,” says [Hamas spokesman Fawzi] Barhum. “We have agreed to delay the real reconciliation and the forming of the transitional government until the general assembly is over. The US will veto our request for sure. This will generate a vacuum in our political options. The chances for a third intifada are high, ” he adds.
The majority of significantly armed factions in the Gaza Strip, like the Naser Salahadin Brigades and Islamic Jihad, agree with Barhum's assessment. Leaders, such as Khaled Batch, claim they are in the process of readying themselves for armed uprising.
“In spite of all the efforts of Israel, Hamas and its allies managed to get weapons through smuggling,” says Walla Karaja, a journalist working for the UNRWA. “Since the reconciliation, the military trainings have increased in the Strip, and, we heard, that huge quantities of weapons arrived from the outside.”
After several days of negotiations, Al-Masry Al-Youm recently met one leader of Nasser Salahadin Brigades, under strict conditions. In the Laurate woods of Nuseirat, two armed and masked men escorted Al-Masry Al-Youm - after placing a hood over the reporter’s head - to an exit point of one of the Gaza Strip’s largest tunnels.
These tunnels are not made for smuggling. They are constructed to connect all the strategic points of the Strip underground. One brigade member, insisting on using an alias, called himself Abu Seiar, the father of the sword. He had just returned from Syria, after receiving military training there. He was taught, he claimed, how to use anti-tank weaponry, among other skills.
“I was called home because I'm an expert in building non-commercial tunnels,” says Abu Seiar, whose job now is to strengthen the existing tunnels and attach new strategic exits. “Others have returned from Lebanon and Iran. Everyone knows that something is going to happen.”
Although officials with Qassam Brigades are reluctant to speak with the media, smugglers on the Palestinian side of Rafah are more than willing to talk.
By the way, there is little support for another uprising on the streets of Gaza. The reporter writes that 'not one ordinary Palestinian' with whom he spoke favored an uprising.
“Look at the conditions how we live,” some say. “This is the result of the first and second uprising. If we start a new one, they [the Israelis] will cut our throat.”
We can only hope.
Much more on this story
here.
Labels: Fawzi Barhoum, Gaza, Hamas, Third intifada, weapons smuggling
Fayyad dissolves 'Palestinian cabinet'
In a bid to distract the 'Palestinians' from what is going on in the rest of the Arab world, 'Palestinian Prime Minister' Salam Fayyad has
dissolved his cabinet, and will appoint a new one over the next two weeks.
The official Wafa news agency said the move was intended to prepare for general elections planned later this year. Fayyad now has six weeks to name a new cabinet.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas accepted Fayyad's decision after the cabinet meeting.
Abbas's Palestinian Authority has announced a series of dramatic moves following mass protests that ousted rulers in Egypt and Tunisia over the past month. The protests have spurred calls for democracy throughout the Middle East, a region dominated by monarchs and autocratic leaders.
The Palestinians are also dealing with the fallout from embarrassing media leaks about past peace talks with Israel. Together with deadlock in peace efforts with Israel, these developments have put pressure on Abbas to press forward with reforms.
The Palestinian Authority government said over the weekend that it would hold long-overdue general elections later this year, weeks after saying it would hold local elections in July.
...
A Fayyad aide said his boss was expected to include members of Abbas's Fatah party in the cabinet, members of smaller Palestinian Authority factions, as well as independent technocrats. Fayyad is a US-educated economist.
I'm inclined to agree with Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum's assessment of the situation.
"This is silly theater," said Hamas official Fawzi Barhoum. He accused Abbas of trying to fool people into thinking that genuine reform was underway.
Sounds right to me.
Labels: Fawzi Barhoum, Hamas, Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian Authority, Salam Fayyad
