Gaza mourns victims of unknown assailants
It began at about 7am: Continous machine gun banter,, dozens of rounds in a row, and only one street down from our house. More infighting, we assumed, or maybe disgruntled security forces. But it didn't stop. We opened the local radio and learned that 3 children had been killed-sons of an intelligence official, Colonel Baha Balousha, loyal to Mahmoud Abbas's Fateh party.
They were shot dead in a car outside their school in Gaza on Monday, spilling pools of blood along the street.
Balousha, along with Mohammad Dahalan, is known as one of the figures involved in a then Fateh-run PA crackdown against and torture of Hamas members a decade ago, and he has been at odds with Hamas for some time. Hamas denied responsiblity and called the crime gruesome.
Fatah supporters blocked off main roads in the city with burning tyres, and others called for a general strike, shooting at stores who refused to close shop.
They stormed the parliment and called for the Hamas-run government's immediate resignation, shooting wildly into the air throughout the city and making scathing insults against Hamas leaders.
Tensions were running very high and threatened to spill over into the streets-everybody wanted someone to blame and for Fateh, that someone was Hamas.
Hamas withdrew its forces to avoid confronation, and later at night in a show of solidarity, representatives of all the factions, including Hamas, joined forces with Fateh in a candelight vigil against violence and criminality in front of the father's house.
Everyone is mourning and searching for answers and of course for the assailants. No one can comprehend who would commit such a brutal act-which people seem to think was intentional (the targetting of the children) given the time and location. Others say the intended target wasthe father. But mostly, everybody wants a solution.
Today's sad events have triggered widespread fear and uncertainty. The tension is palpable in the air and threatens to boil over at any time. As the florist down the street told me, "I used to say before I was afraid of what is coming. But now, I am REALLy afraid. No body knows what's going to happen next."
posted by Laila @ Monday, December 11, 2006
8 Comments:
thank you sincerely for this blog
the presence of blogs like these counters the hard rain of untruths told by the foxbbccnnn axis
thank you, again
If it is understandable that many in Palestine, including Hamas-supporters do not love Baha Balousha and Mohammad Dahalan, it is not probable that this act against children had been orchestrated by muslim. Muslim do not attac children, not their own ones, not their enemie's...
Could it be that "outsiders" monitored this crime in order to seam confusion between Palestinians? The question is - as everytime in obscure murders - to whom benefits this crime?
No doubt its an ugly horrific crime but I believe the criminals who committed this crime are not Palestinains, if there were really palestinians then for sure they are not Muslims !! I belive they are Israeli agents (collaborators)who wish to make Palestinians busy fighting each other and drive them into civil war specially after Abbas called for early elections and Hamas rejected it and said this is clear coup against democracy and will have a negative impact on Palestinians, also the tight siege imposed on the Palestinians by the US is behind the security chaos because the security forces along with 16.000 civil servants did not get paid for the last 8 months, so to enforce the law Palestinians must be united and stop incitements and blabe our devile Enemeies (US +Israel) who raised on commiting genocides, ! Palestinians must not lose hope and should convene to form a national unity government which will be able to lift the siege, But unfortunately in the international day for human rights , I want to ask the UN, stop your double standard policy and stop being biased to Israel, use your role to force Israel to comply and implement UN resolutions, and to end the Israeli millitery occupation, we know the Islaei zionest loppy is very active in the White house and the UN and the security councile, and etc.. etc ..
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Well the latest rumours now say that it was very possibly an act perpetratd agents of the Mafia in Israel (maybe the Russian Mafia) which deals a lot with the contraband trade into Gaza, such as drugs, cigarettes, etc., and with whom Balousha had relations.
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I cannot believe someone is blaming the Israelis for this. Don't you understand that taking responsibility for your own lives and futures is the only way you will begin to get out of the tragedy.
I knew it was only a matter of time before Israel was someone blamed for this. Unbelievable. Come on you guys, open your eyes to this thing called "reality."
Who benefits from dividing the Palestinian people and starting a Palestinian civil war? Only Israel. A people divided are easily defeated and conquered. There's no doubt that Israeli interests are the instigators of the violence between the factions in Palestine. Israel has recently come under a tremondous amount of pressure from the international community and now even in the U.S. (the Baker report, Carter's book, etc.) to make peace and a final settlement with the Palestinians. On the heals of this pressure, Israel has every incentive of making sure that it has "no partner in peace" so that it may unilaterally draw its own borders and ethically cleanse the Palestinians from their lands.
This is exactly the tactic the U.S. has used in Iraq. The U.S. does not desire a strong, united sovereign Iraq that is capable of standing up to U.S. imperial and corporate interests. A people divided are easily defeated and conquered.
As a peace activist in the U.S., I too often encounter instigators whose sole mission is to defeat the peace movement by creating in fighting. Unfortunately, these tactics are effective.
I hope that Hamas and Fateh are able to recognize who the real threat is to the Palestinian people, put their differences aside and unite the Palestinian people to engage in peaceful resistence. Imagine what would happen if Abbas and Haniya led a march, hand-in-hand, of the Palestinian refugees out of their concentration camps to gates of Palestine demanding to come home . . . . An action like this would galvanize the international peace community and would result in an immediate just settlement between Israel and the Palestinians.
Peace soon.
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