http://permanent.nouvelobs.com/etranger/20...03.OBS4476.html
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/100406H.shtml
Le Nouvel Observateur/Reuters - Tuesday 03 October 2006
QUOTE
The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the armed faction linked to Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party, threatened for the first time on Tuesday, October 3, to kill Hamas leaders, included their exiled head, Khaled Mechaal.
These declarations mark a new escalation in the struggle for power between Fatah and Hamas, the winner of the January legislative elections, after two days of confrontations between partisans of the two movements that resulted in 12 dead and over one hundred wounded in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
In a communiqué, the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades hold Khaled Mechaal, Palestinian interior minister Said Seyam, and a high official in that Ministry, Yussef al Zahar, responsible for those deaths.
"Leaders of the Sedition"
"We of al-Aqsa announce, frankly and strongly, the verdict of the people in the heart of the fatherland and in the diaspora, to execute the leaders of the sedition, Khaled Mechaal, Said Seyam, and Yussef al Zahar, and we will carry out this verdict so that these monstrous people may serve as an example," reads the text.
Mechaal lives in exile in Damascus; Said Seyam and Yussef al Zahar reside in the Gaza Strip.
A deputy for the fundamentalist movement, Muchir al-Masri, deems that the Brigades are throwing oil on a fire. Hamas, he countered, "will demonstrate no pity" if one of its leaders is the target of the "leaders of a domestic coup d'état."
A spokesman for the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades described this communiqué as a "natural response" to the order given by Said Seyamto to his forces to take control of Gaza's streets on Sunday in the face of Fatah police on strike demanding that their salaries be paid.
He did not wish to say whether the declaration reflected the viewpoint of the whole movement or of certain factions only. For Yussef al Zahar, it only reflects the opinion of a putschist faction that seeks to liquidate the Islamic resistance.
On a visit to Saudi Arabia, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called on the Palestinians to put an end to violence and reasserted the political necessity that they recognize previous agreements with Israel and its right to existence.
In Cairo, the Arab League described the violence as unprecedented "Palestinian madness" and invited the factions to lay down their arms immediately.
"Leave assassinations, attacks, and destruction to Israel because the Palestinian people has had enough of it," added Mohamed Soubaih, from the League's Secretariat.
Haniyeh Accuses Rice
Hamas government Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh accused Condoleezza Rice of seeking to divide Palestinians and called for a resumption of talks to achieve a government of national unity, talks that have run up against the Islamist movement's refusal to recognize the Jewish state.
Mahmoud Abbas is engaged in an ever more bitter struggle for power with Ismail Haniyeh's government, and the efforts to constitute a unity Fatah-Hamas government remain at an impasse.
The tension is particularly strong in the face of the government's inability - subject to a Western embargo - to pay its functionaries, mostly affiliated with Fatah, their salaries and benefits.
Western governments seek through this embargo to constrain Hamas to recognize Israel, renounce violence and apply the interim peace agreements.
A close Abbas advisor declared Monday that the president was seriously considering the possibility of forming an emergency government or of convoking early elections to put an end to the crisis.
At the same time the intra-Palestinian crisis is going on, Israel continues its punctual military actions in the Gaza strip. In the southern part of that territory, an aerial strike Tuesday destroyed a metal foundry, killing one Palestinian and wounding another, according to doctors and residents.
An Israeli Army spokesperson declared that the strike targeted a factory where they suspect the Palestinians of making weapons. Israel regularly targets buildings, he claimed, that are used by activists to make or stockpile rockets.
These declarations mark a new escalation in the struggle for power between Fatah and Hamas, the winner of the January legislative elections, after two days of confrontations between partisans of the two movements that resulted in 12 dead and over one hundred wounded in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
In a communiqué, the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades hold Khaled Mechaal, Palestinian interior minister Said Seyam, and a high official in that Ministry, Yussef al Zahar, responsible for those deaths.
"Leaders of the Sedition"
"We of al-Aqsa announce, frankly and strongly, the verdict of the people in the heart of the fatherland and in the diaspora, to execute the leaders of the sedition, Khaled Mechaal, Said Seyam, and Yussef al Zahar, and we will carry out this verdict so that these monstrous people may serve as an example," reads the text.
Mechaal lives in exile in Damascus; Said Seyam and Yussef al Zahar reside in the Gaza Strip.
A deputy for the fundamentalist movement, Muchir al-Masri, deems that the Brigades are throwing oil on a fire. Hamas, he countered, "will demonstrate no pity" if one of its leaders is the target of the "leaders of a domestic coup d'état."
A spokesman for the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades described this communiqué as a "natural response" to the order given by Said Seyamto to his forces to take control of Gaza's streets on Sunday in the face of Fatah police on strike demanding that their salaries be paid.
He did not wish to say whether the declaration reflected the viewpoint of the whole movement or of certain factions only. For Yussef al Zahar, it only reflects the opinion of a putschist faction that seeks to liquidate the Islamic resistance.
On a visit to Saudi Arabia, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called on the Palestinians to put an end to violence and reasserted the political necessity that they recognize previous agreements with Israel and its right to existence.
In Cairo, the Arab League described the violence as unprecedented "Palestinian madness" and invited the factions to lay down their arms immediately.
"Leave assassinations, attacks, and destruction to Israel because the Palestinian people has had enough of it," added Mohamed Soubaih, from the League's Secretariat.
Haniyeh Accuses Rice
Hamas government Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh accused Condoleezza Rice of seeking to divide Palestinians and called for a resumption of talks to achieve a government of national unity, talks that have run up against the Islamist movement's refusal to recognize the Jewish state.
Mahmoud Abbas is engaged in an ever more bitter struggle for power with Ismail Haniyeh's government, and the efforts to constitute a unity Fatah-Hamas government remain at an impasse.
The tension is particularly strong in the face of the government's inability - subject to a Western embargo - to pay its functionaries, mostly affiliated with Fatah, their salaries and benefits.
Western governments seek through this embargo to constrain Hamas to recognize Israel, renounce violence and apply the interim peace agreements.
A close Abbas advisor declared Monday that the president was seriously considering the possibility of forming an emergency government or of convoking early elections to put an end to the crisis.
At the same time the intra-Palestinian crisis is going on, Israel continues its punctual military actions in the Gaza strip. In the southern part of that territory, an aerial strike Tuesday destroyed a metal foundry, killing one Palestinian and wounding another, according to doctors and residents.
An Israeli Army spokesperson declared that the strike targeted a factory where they suspect the Palestinians of making weapons. Israel regularly targets buildings, he claimed, that are used by activists to make or stockpile rockets.
Local Hamas Leader Assassinated in the West Bank
http://www.lefigaro.fr/international/20061...isjordanie.html
Le Figaro (with Reuters and AP) - Wednesday 04 October 2006
QUOTE
Less than 24 hours after the threats proffered by Fatah against the Hamas leaders in power, a Party of God official was shot dead by three hooded persons in Hableh, a village situated close to Kalkilia, northwest of Ramallah. The assailants burst into the street while 37-year-old Mohammed Odeh was leaving the mosque after morning prayer. Described as a local Hamas official, he succumbed to his wounds during transport to the hospital. The Israeli Army denied any involvement.
Tuesday, the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, close to Fatah, allowed it to be understood that senior Hamas officials could be eliminated, beginning with leader in exile Khaled Mechaal and Interior Minister Said Siam. Since last weekend, the two groups' partisans have indulged again in a political contest that killed at least a dozen people and wounded a hundred. Palestinian prime minister Ismail Haniyeh assured Tuesday that he would prevent a "civil war," calling for "the voices of wisdom and reason, respect for order, the law, the institutions and the will of the Palestinian people" to prevail.
Appeal by One Hundred Global Personalities
On tour of the Middle East, American secretary of state Condoleezza Rice called on the Palestinians to cease from fighting and to endow themselves with a government "that can respect the Quartet's principles." She also deemed that "the forces of moderation facing the forces of extremism" must be helped. Wednesday, she will meet Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas before meetings with Israeli officials. According to the Financial Times, the American diplomat in chief could most notably propose the deployment of international observers at the main passageway between Israel and the Gaza Strip.
The British daily also published a letter signed by 135 former world leaders, foreign affairs ministers, diplomats, and religious leaders calling for a rapid resolution of the Middle East conflict. Launched through the initiative of the International Crisis Group, notable signatories include former American president Jimmy Carter, former British prime minister John Major, and former president of the former Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev, in favor of "urgent international action" and a "new international conference."
Tuesday, the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, close to Fatah, allowed it to be understood that senior Hamas officials could be eliminated, beginning with leader in exile Khaled Mechaal and Interior Minister Said Siam. Since last weekend, the two groups' partisans have indulged again in a political contest that killed at least a dozen people and wounded a hundred. Palestinian prime minister Ismail Haniyeh assured Tuesday that he would prevent a "civil war," calling for "the voices of wisdom and reason, respect for order, the law, the institutions and the will of the Palestinian people" to prevail.
Appeal by One Hundred Global Personalities
On tour of the Middle East, American secretary of state Condoleezza Rice called on the Palestinians to cease from fighting and to endow themselves with a government "that can respect the Quartet's principles." She also deemed that "the forces of moderation facing the forces of extremism" must be helped. Wednesday, she will meet Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas before meetings with Israeli officials. According to the Financial Times, the American diplomat in chief could most notably propose the deployment of international observers at the main passageway between Israel and the Gaza Strip.
The British daily also published a letter signed by 135 former world leaders, foreign affairs ministers, diplomats, and religious leaders calling for a rapid resolution of the Middle East conflict. Launched through the initiative of the International Crisis Group, notable signatories include former American president Jimmy Carter, former British prime minister John Major, and former president of the former Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev, in favor of "urgent international action" and a "new international conference."
Translation: t ryout h oyout French language correspondent Leslie Thatcher.