MSM X Files And One Hit Wonders
From the MSM X Files and one hit wonders:
Medics at a northern Gaza Strip hospital walked off their jobs for a few hours Saturday to protest the kidnapping and shooting of a doctor by Palestinian militants, the first physician targeted in months of deadly infighting...
Medical institutions are often unwilling parties to the conflict. Hospitals in areas of militant strongholds often only treat parties from one side of the conflict, to ensure tensions do not break out in the hospital itself.
Militants have also used hospital rooftops and grounds as firing points, prompting their rivals to fire upon hospitals, threatening staff and patients.
“It’s very ironic but I’m relieved the Israelis have started a bombing campaign. The gunmen killing each other on the streets were forced to go into hiding,” said Mai, a Gaza housewife, referring to strikes aimed at halting rocket attacks on Israel...
“Many of these groups are now a burden on society. They were created to fill a security vacuum under the pretext of national resistance, said legislator Nasser Jum’a, once a leading member of Fatah’s al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.
“They then blackmailed people, attacked them and confiscated their freedoms as the weak official security forces failed to punish them,” he said...
More than nine in 10 Palestinians show signs of depression caused by despair over violence between Hamas and Fatah gunmen and the apparent demise of the Palestinian unity government, according to a West Bank pollster...
The poll was taken last month, following a deadly flare-up between Hamas and Fatah gunmen that left dozens dead in Gaza and laid bare a dysfunctional unity government. The unrest cuts across region, political affiliation and social class, according to the poll findings.
Analysts fear the growing despair will cause more grass-roots Palestinians to be drawn into an internecine conflict, which has been largely limited to militias from rival parties and families. Other reactions include rising support for radical Islamic militant groups as well as increasing waves of emigration.
“There’s a high level of frustration. It’s getting dangerous. There isn’t any value to life,” said Ibrahim Habib, field-work coordinator for the Israeli chapter of Physicians for Human Rights. “A lot of people feel the [Palestinian] Authority is irrelevant.”
Amid fears that growing religious extremism may turn the already chaotic Gaza Strip into a Taliban-like area, an underground group threatened at the weekend to behead female news presenters on the official Palestinian Authority television station who did not wear strict Islamic dress.
"If necessary we will behead and slaughter to preserve the spirit and morals of our people," the Righteous Swords of Islam said. The group said the women presenters were corrupting Palestinian society by appearing on television with their faces uncovered...
The group is one of three al-Qa'ida-affiliated organisations that have emerged in Gaza in the past two years. These groups have taken responsibility for bombing more than 30 internet cafes, music shops and pool halls.
"These are extremely dangerous groups that are trying to take Palestinian society back to the dark ages," said a Palestinian Authority official in Ramallah, on the West Bank, who warned that existing radical groups could be replaced by even more extremist groups.
"The day will come when we will miss Hamas..."
The International Herald Tribune:
Lebanon's army fired heavy artillery barrages into a besieged Palestinian refugee camp in north Lebanon on Tuesday in its continued struggle to uproot Islamic militants holed up inside.
The renewed fighting comes a day after a mortar shell fired by Fatah Islam militants inside the Nahr el-Bared camp killed two Lebanese Red Cross workers and injured a third.
The fighting in the Nahr el-Bared camp which began on May 20 has dragged on for more than three weeks with no imminent end in sight.
From Agence France Presse:
The Security Council on Monday reiterated "deep concern" at mounting reports of "illegal movements of arms" across the Lebanese Syrian-border, amid fears of escalating strife...
The council issued the statement after hearing from UN Middle East envoy Terje Roed Larsen who drew an "alarming and deeply disturbing picture" of the situation, citing Lebanese army reports of "a steady flow of weapons and armed elements across the border from Syria..."
"The information from the government of Lebanon on trafficking of arms and militants across the Syrian-Lebanese border is disturbing," Roed Larsen told the council.
He also cited detailed reports from Israel and other states "on illegal transfers of arms" indicating that some weapons produced outside the region arrive via third countries and are brought clandestinely into Lebanon via the Syrian border.
The envoy also highlighted "allegations of widespread rearming and the possibility of renewed fighting among the Lebanese."
"The recent seizure of a truckload of arms for Hezbollah (the powerful Shiite movement) in the Bekaa valley is particularly worrisome," he noted.
He also referred to the Lebanese army siege of Fatah al-Islam militants in the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in northern Lebanon where two Lebanese Red Cross workers were killed by bullets fired from inside Monday.
CBS:
Hamas demanded Tuesday that Fatah-allied security forces abandon their positions, threatening to attack those who remained in their posts.
The fierce fighting between rival Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip has left at least 18 people dead since Monday...
Palestinian gunmen have opened fire at the home of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader, and the offices of President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, in a surge in violence that has killed at least 20 people since Saturday.
It is the fourth day of gun battles in Gaza that have brought Palestinians closer to civil war in a raging power struggle between Islamist Hamas and secular Fatah, partners in a three-month-old unity government.
Some people were shot at close range in street executions, others in shootouts that turned hospitals into battle grounds.
In one incident, Jamal Abu al-Jedian was shot 41 times in his hospital bed in Beit Hanoun. His brother was also later found dead, Fatah said.
"Everybody is shooting at everybody," one doctor said.
The home of a Fatah activist was attacked and three members of his family killed, including a 75-year-old woman and a 13-year-old boy.
A Hamas mosque preacher, Mohammed al-Rifati, was shot dead by Fatah gunmen...
Yup, Israel is the problem. Just like the MSM would have you believe.
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