by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz
At least eight Arabs were killed on Monday night, and 60 others wounded, in armed clashes between rival Hamas and Fatah terrorists in Gaza. Among the dead are a teenager, a Palestinian Authority policeman, and three Hamas terrorists.
Hamas militiamen in Gaza took senior Fatah leader Ibrahim Abu al-Naja captive in the wake of Monday's violent internecine confrontations. He was released after his Hamas captors shaved off his mustache. Al-Naja previously served as the head of an umbrella organization of Gaza terrorist groups.
The armed clashes between Fatah and Hamas began in Khan Yunis on Monday night, with gun battles reported in Beit Hanoun and other Gaza cities as well. Five of the PA casualties were killed in the initial outbreak of violence in the southern Gaza region. The confrontation was sparked by attempts by Hamas militiamen to prevent a Fatah rally in Khan Yunis marking the group's first terrorist attack in 1965.
Following the disruption of the Fatah gathering on Monday, journalists told the Associated Press that they received anonymous threats not to attend another, upcoming Fatah rally in Gaza. The rally has been preemptively banned by the ruling Hamas.
Hamas took over Gaza from Fatah control in an armed insurrection in June 2007. The Islamist faction overwhelmingly won public support in PA parliamentary elections in January of 2006, pushing Fatah into a minority role. However, the powerful PA chairmanship has remained in Fatah hands since the PA was formed in 1993, leading to ongoing tensions between the two terrorist groups as they vied for control over the PA's funds and arms.
Fatah Celebrating 43 Years of Attacks on Israel
The rallies that Hamas seeks to prevent or disperse mark 43 years since Fatah carried out its first terrorist attack on Israel. The group attempted to bomb the National Water Carrier on January 1, 1965, but the attack was foiled. Fatah continued a bombing campaign throughout the rest of that year. Palestinian Authority Chairman and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas spoke at celebrations in Ramallah on Monday in honor of the occasion.
Abbas claims in Western forums that Fatah's battle with Israel was caused by the Israeli occupation of lands that were controlled by Jordan (Judea and Samaria) and Egypt (Gaza) between 1948 and 1967. However, Fatah marks its beginnings years before the currently disputed areas reverted to Israeli control. Fatah, a reverse acronym of the Arabic Harekat at-Tahrir al-Wataniyyeh al-Falastiniyyeh ("Palestinian National Liberation Movement"), means "conquest by means of jihad." The group was originated by members of the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, including Yasser Arafat.
The unchanged Fatah Charter declares as the organization's goal the "eradication of Zionist economic, political, military and cultural existence." According to its founding document, Fatah believes "armed struggle is a strategy and not a tactic." Regarding its tactics, in an anniversary communique released on December 31, 2001, the Fatah leadership wrote that it "believes that a legitimate Palestinian entity forms the most important weapon that Arabs have against Israel, the outpost of the imperialist powers."
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