Happy Gaza New Year…
Palestinians protest in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah asking Egypt to open the Rafah border crossing to pilgrims. At least five Palestinians were killed and around 40 wounded in armed clashes on Monday between Fatah loyalists and Hamas police in the south of the Islamist-ruled Gaza Strip, medical sources said. (AFP/Said Khatib)
Gaza brings in the new with a little of the old familiar…
8 are dead in the Gaza infighting so far this week.
USA Today reported:
Celebrations marking the founding of the veteran Palestinian movement, Fatah, turned deadly in the Gaza Strip, where eight Palestinians were killed in clashes between Fatah backers and supporters of the territory’s Islamic Hamas rulers.
The internal violence came just hours after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas delivered an unusually conciliatory speech toward Hamas. If it spirals, it could undermine U.S. President George W. Bush’s peace mission to the region next week by distracting Abbas from diplomacy.
Five Palestinians died in fighting across Gaza on Monday, and a sixth died of his wounds Tuesday morning. Two others were killed in Gaza City early Tuesday in a gunbattle between rival families — one pro-Hamas and one pro-Fatah, medical officials said. Further details weren’t immediately available.
Anyone who thinks there will be peace between Fatah and Hamas let alone with Israel any time soon is being a putz.
The BBC has more on the clashes.
