KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza, 14 December 2006 — Unidentified gunmen dragged a judge from the Hamas Islamist movement out of a taxi and shot him dead in front of his courthouse in Gaza yesterday, increasing fears of a Palestinian civil war. Officials from the governing Hamas faction said Bassam Al-Fara, 28, was a judge in a civil court but also a member of the group’s armed wing.
Witnesses who declined to be identified told Reuters at the scene the gunmen had eaten breakfast in a nearby restaurant in the town of Khan Younis while waiting for Fara to arrive. They shot him at point blank range after pulling him from the car. Tensions and violence have spiraled in Gaza and the occupied West Bank between Hamas and the rival Fatah faction of moderate President Mahmoud Abbas after attempts to form a national unity government failed.
Unrest has increased since the killing of three young sons of one of Abbas’ top intelligence officials in Gaza on Monday. No one claimed responsibility for the shooting of the judge. Hamas, which accuses Fatah of trying to topple its government, issued a statement blaming the killing on a Fatah “death squad.”
“The seekers of the coup in Fatah bear the responsibility for all actions of chaos taking place in the Palestinian streets,” senior Hamas lawmaker Mushir Al-Masri told Reuters. A Fatah spokesman, Tawfiq Abu Khoussa, criticized Hamas for blaming the once dominant faction. “The brothers in Hamas must be accurate and not throw quick accusations before an investigation has yet to start,” he said. At least 10,000 people marched in a funeral procession for Fara in Khan Younis.
Meanwhile, Israel’s Supreme Court yesterday rejected an appeal by Palestinians over the route of the Jewish state’s controversial separation wall in the suburbs of East Jerusalem, court sources said. Residents of Al-Ram had appealed the proposed route of the wall, which will leave their West Bank town cut off from occupied East Jerusalem.
The justices rejected the appeal, saying the route did not violate “the balance between security concerns” and rights of Palestinian residents with Israeli ID cards. “Defending Jerusalem from terrorist infiltrations constitutes a vital security interest,” said the ruling.
It marked the latest in a series of rulings by the highest court on appeals against the planned route of the massive wall of electric fencing, barbed wire and concrete wall that snakes across the occupied West Bank.
The court ruled that Israeli security concerns were primary to losses endured by the plaintiffs and determined no alternative route other than the one outlined by the Israeli army.
In June, the court ordered the state to dismantle a five-kilometer section of the wall in the northern West Bank following an appeal from two Palestinian villages.
Meanwhile, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh criticized yesterday the deployment in Gaza of security forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas and said the solution to violence was respect for Hamas’ election victory.
Tensions have spiraled between Hamas and the Fatah faction of Abbas after attempts to form a unity government failed.
On Monday, three young sons of one of Abbas’ top intelligence officials were killed in Gaza, prompting Abbas to order his security forces to deploy across Gaza.
“The comprehensive solution to this situation is to respect the will of the Palestinian people. Respect its democratic choices and stop the security movements on the ground,” Haniyeh told a news conference in the Sudanese capital Khartoum.
