The civil war between Hamas and Fatah terrorists raged on in Gaza Wednesday, with Hamas on the verge of victory. Hamas seized thousands of weapons and vehicles granted to Fatah by the Oslo Accords.
A Hamas spokesman said that a decision had been taken to kill all of Fatah’s leading officials, who he referred to as “dogs beholden to their Israeli masters.”
Hamas has distributed a list of at least 30 Fatah officials it seeks to have killed for complicity, they say, in a US-backed plan to topple Hamas. The first name is senior Fatah terrorist Mohammed Dahlan, who holds the position of National Security Adviser in the Fatah-Hamas PA unity government. He has been hiding out in Egypt for the past two months. Many of the other Fatah men on the list have fled Gaza.
Hamas took over nearly all Fatah positions in Gaza and confiscated thousands of rifles, tons of ammunition and armored jeeps and APCs supplied by the US, Egypt and Israel over the years.
Eight Fatah men were killed Wednesday morning defending the home of senior Fatah official Mahr Mekhdad – who escaped the fighting. About 200 Hamas terrorists surrounded the home of Yassir Arafat confidant Nabil Shaath – shooting one of his body guards.
PA reports say 15 were injured in Wednesday’s clashes – five civilians. More than 25 people were killed in Tuesday’s clashes totaling more than 66 in recent days.
Tuesday night, senior Fatah commander Jamal Abu Jadian tried to escape a Hamas siege on his northern Gaza home, dressed as a Muslim woman, in full hijab. He took refuge in a nearby hospital, but was spotted by Hamas terrorists, who pumped more than 40 bullets into his head with automatic rifles. He died from the assault.
A close ally of Dahlan’s, Abu Jadian is the third senior Fatah commander to be gunned down in recent clashes.
Hamas has completely taken control of northern Gaza, declaring it closed to members of the Fatah-loyal PA forces. In central Gaza, Hamas took over Fatah Presidential Guard positions with hardly any resistance. A Fatah position controlling Gaza’s main road was also seized and destroyed. The only Fatah presence remaining in Gaza is a few positions in Gaza City.
Fatah terrorists fired an RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) at the home of Hamas’s deputy Information Minister Tuesday, setting it on fire.
PA Foreign Minister Ziad Abu Amr said that the clashes between Fatah and Hamas could be expected to spread to Judea and Samaria as well. Shooting between Fatah and Hamas terrorists has already been reported in Shechem.
Both Fatah’s Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas’s Ismail Haniyeh called for an end to fighting Tuesday. Both had their homes and offices targeted by rival terrorists and the calls of both have been ignored. Abbas called Hamas’s attacks a “bloody coup.”
Fatah has decided to “suspend its participation in the national unity government until the fighting stops,” said a statement following a Fatah session in Ramallah Tuesday.