Palestinian Civil War Watch

This is one of those train wrecks that everyone slows down to watch despite how horrible the accident is. Palestinians are on the verge of a civil war that few media outlets appears willing to declare despite their insistence that such was the case in Iraq.

Three gunmen were killed on Monday in clashes between the two factions, fuelled by a power struggle waged by Abbas and Haniyeh over control of security forces that has intensified Palestinian fears of a civil war.

Medics said four teenagers on their way to school were among the wounded in Tuesday’s fighting. Gunmen and police were also among those hurt in Gaza City’s Tuffah neighborhood, they said.

The fighting subsided after about an hour, said Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri, whose militant Islamist group won parliamentary elections in January. “These unfortunate incidents are now under control, thanks to the cooperation of all.”

Fatah officials said the fighting began when gunmen fired at a car carrying bodyguards of a senior Fatah official. Hamas had no immediate comment on how the fighting started.

Who are they kidding? Terrorists are running amok in Gaza and the violence stops when one group realizes that it is badly outgunned so it withdraws until the next encounter.

Meanwhile, Israel interdicted a boat heading towards Gaza carrying a half ton of explosives in the largest seizure in a couple of years.

An Israeli patrol spotted a small boat leaving Egyptian waters, crossing the Egyptian no-sail zone and then entering Israel's no-sail zone. Israel requires Gazan fishermen to remain within 10 nautical miles of shore. The boat, a fishing vessel, was six nautical miles (about 6.9 miles) from Gaza when an Israeli vessel intercepted it and fired warning shots. But the boat went behind another fishing boat and dumped its cargo into the water, Captain Laks said.

The boat then "escaped into the crowd of hundreds of fishing boats off Gaza at this time and we decided not to pursue it" and risk hurting innocent fishermen, the captain said.

Israeli divers found the cargo — 13 sacks of explosive — at a depth of some 30 yards.

The explosives could just as easily have been used by one of the terrorist groups against other Palestinians as it would have been against Israelis.

UPDATE:
Meanwhile, the US is releasing $10 million to go to provide health care to Palestinians. I'm sorry, but the humanitarian aid will not go where it is intended - and will mean more money for Palestinians to bring in weapons and ammo. It will free up Hamas to continue their operations against Israel and Fatah instead of actually governing. With limited resources any entity has to prioritize its spending habits - and the Palestinians repeatedly show themselves utter incapable of spending on anything other than terrorism.

And the US envoy to Gaza has stepped down, noting that it's essentially impossible to make Hamas change its stripes.