Payback

A day after Hamas terrorists killed three children in a drive-by attack meant to eliminate a senior Fatah thug, Hamas fired on a crowd of Fatah supporters demonstrating:

Hamas gunmen fired on demonstrators from the rival Fatah movement on Tuesday, wounding four people and intensifying fears of a new wave of Palestinian infighting following the deaths of three children in a drive-by shooting, officials said.

The demonstration was organized to protest the deaths of the children, whose car was riddled with bullets as they were driven to school Monday morning. Fatah officials have accused Hamas of being behind the shooting. The children's father is an intelligence officer who is considered an enemy of Hamas.

Saleh Hammad, a local Fatah leader, said the demonstration was peaceful, though he acknowledged that some children had provoked the Hamas militiamen by throwing rocks at them.

'Even if one or a few children lost their temper and stoned the members of the unit, this is not a reason to be fired at,'' he said.

Those Palestinian children have been indoctrinated to throw rocks at Israelis, and didn't quite realize that throwing rocks at Hamas is a different game entirely. Hamas has no problem firing its weapons into crowds.

The irony of the statements cannot be over emphasized. Hamas and Fatah will routinely fire rockets and guns at Israelis who are doing nothing more than going about their business - and will defend those actions as being part and parcel of their struggle against occupation (Gaza hasn't been occupied since 2005 and most West Bank areas are under the 'civil administrative control' of Palestinians since Oslo.

Now, they complain when their own terror thugs fire on their own crowds. The vultures have come home to roost.

UPDATE:
Yet more violence has been reported. Fatah and Hamas 'security' forces opened fire on each other.

Palestinian security forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas traded gunfire with Hamas policemen in Gaza on Tuesday as tensions soared after the killing of three young sons of one of Abbas's top intelligence officials.

Hospital officials said two members of Abbas's security forces had been wounded, one seriously. A spokesman for the governing Hamas Islamist movement's police force said two of their men had been wounded. One was in critical condition.

Both sides accused the other of starting the gunfight in the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis. The Hamas spokesman said members of Abbas's forces had been protesting and attacking public buildings.

But have no fear, Reuters cuts to the heart of the matter and finds that the reason for the ongoing violence is because the West cut off aid to the Palestinians. Sorry, but this is what happens when you have rival terrorist organizations fighting for control instead of actually governing. The West's cutoff of economic aid only reduces the amount of money they're fighting for.

UPDATE:
Added link to the initial NYT article. Also commenting on the ongoing uncivil war between Fatah and Hamas: Noisyroom, Joshua Pundit, Israelated, Dust My Broom, Conservative Sense, Coalition of the Swilling, and Webloggin'.

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