Hidden Gems in Palestinian Civil War Coverage

The media is still reluctant to call the situation in Gaza a civil war, but when continue issuing reports indicating fierce factional fighting that includes assassinating the leadership of the opposition, killing those who speak out against the fighting between Hamas and Gaza, and generally rampaging through Gaza, one can't help but call it a civil war.

GAZA (Reuters) - Unidentified gunmen shot dead a Muslim cleric after he delivered a sermon in the Gaza Strip on Friday calling for an end to fierce factional fighting between Hamas and Fatah, hospital officials and local residents said.

The cleric’s shooting in central Gaza came hours after Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas said he and President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah had agreed to keep rival gunmen off Gaza’s streets after clashes in which eight were killed.

Tension remained high across the coastal strip as thousands of Palestinians loyal to Fatah took part in funeral marches for a commander killed in a barrage of rocket-propelled grenades fired by Hamas gunmen on Thursday.

Brushing aside Haniyeh’s plea for calm, Fatah issued a harshly worded statement in Gaza: “Blood for blood and aggression for aggression... and all the sons of the movement should retaliate to each aggression openly.”

The people living in Gaza know what's going on. They see it as a civil war because Hamas and Fatah are fighting for ultimate control over the future of the Palestinians living there, although the future they envision isn't one of hope and promise, but rather death, despair, and unending violence.

This is on top of yesterday's gunbattles that saw six terrorists killed in Hamas/Fatah fighting, and a separate gun battle between Palestinian terrorists and the IDF in Ramallah that resulted in four people killed.

Another kassam rocket hit Sderot.

This is rich: Hamas telling Fatah to reject US money. Sure. Whatever. You actually think that Fatah is going to return the money it gets from the US, which is going to help Fatah fend off Hamas? I don't think so. Of course, the US shouldn't have opened up the money to Fatah in the first place since it's part of the terrorist problem in the region and has done nothing to stop terrorism.

UPDATE:
A day after his terror thugs assassinated a leading Fatah member, Haniyeh wants to call a ceasefire. Does he think that Fatah is going to be in the mood to sit on its hands after absorbing this?

The Palestinian prime minister, Ismail Haniya, called today for an end to the internecine violence in Gaza, a day after members of his own Hamas militia surrounded the house of a Fatah commander, killed the man and his bodyguards and seriously wounded his wife and brother.

Before he died, the commander, Col. Muhammad Gharib, begged for help in a telephone call to Palestinian television that was broadcast live. He said in the call that he was being attacked by the Executive Force, a parallel security force under the command of the Hamas-run Interior Ministry, but Fatah leaders and fighters apparently did not respond to his plea.

“They are killers,” Colonel Gharib said of the gunmen. “They are targeting the house, children are dying, they are bleeding. For God’s sake, send an ambulance, we want an ambulance, somebody move!”

Think of the Bloods and the Crips and you get an idea of where this situation is, and where it's evolving. Hamas has no problem killing civilians, including women and children; neither does Fatah for that matter so it's rather ironic that the Fatah commander was hoping that someone would respond to his pleas to rescue his children and family. After all, neither Hamas nor Fatah have any problem killing Israelis.

Technorati: terrorism, nasrallah, fatah, haniyeh, Olmert, carter, Abbas, abdullah, jordan, PRC, Hamas, Gaza, palestinian, Israel.