GAZA CITY, 9 January 2007 — Palestinian tensions in Gaza surged yesterday as the ruling Hamas movement issued a warning to a strongman of the rival Fatah faction a day after his vitriolic attack on the Islamists at a huge rally. In a statement released in Gaza, Hamas accused Mohammed Dahlan, a Fatah MP, of running a “putschist movement” aimed at bringing down the Islamists’ government “on the orders of his boss (US Secretary of State) Condoleezza Rice.”
“We place the responsibility for each drop of Palestinian blood spilled personally on Dahlan along with his putschist movement,” Hamas said. “We firmly warn against any attempts on Hamas leaders, members of its armed wing or its executive force. Those who play with fire will be burned,” it added.
On Sunday, Dahlan launched a bitter tirade on Hamas during a mass rally in a Gaza City stadium attended by tens of thousands of Fatah supporters. Calling the ruling Islamists a “gang,” he warned that Fatah would respond to any attack against its members.
“Our message today is one of unity and strength under the leadership of Abu Mazen and his armed forces,” Dahlan declared, using President Mahmoud Abbas’ nom de guerre. He said the death of Mohammed Ghraib, a colonel in a Palestinian security force loyal to Fatah, “marks a turning point in our relations” with Hamas, which has controlled the Palestinian government since last March after it routed the long-dominant Fatah in January 2006 elections.
Ghraib was killed on Thursday during an assault by Hamas supporters on his house in Jabaliya in the north of the Gaza Strip, during which the colonel made a desperate phone call to Palestinian public television pleading for help. “If they think this murder will go unanswered, they are wrong,” Dahlan said. “We will leave this venue... with a new program - if anyone from Fatah is attacked, we will take revenge twice as hard.” Violence between Abbas’ Fatah party and Hamas first flared on Dec. 16 after the president called for early presidential and parliamentary elections to resolve a months-long standoff with the Islamists over forming a unity government. Armed clashes in the streets of Gaza killed 15 people and wounded dozens more before the two sides agreed to a truce four days later.
Although a new deal to halt the internecine bloodshed was agreed by Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas last Friday, tensions in the Palestinian territories have remained high. A Hamas supporter’s store was yesterday burned and several others vandalized in the West Bank town of Ramallah. Unknown gunmen opened fire yesterday on the office of independent MP and former Finance Minister Salam Fayyad, without causing injuries or damage, witnesses said.
In the neighboring town of Al-Bireh, unknown gunmen tried unsuccessfully to kidnap the Hamas mayor, Omar Hamayel, town hall sources said. Meanwhile in the northern town of Nablus, Hamas deputy mayor Mehdi Al-Hambali was released yesterday two days after he was kidnapped by unknown gunmen, security sources said, adding that he appeared unscathed.
In another development, joy and relief greeted AFP photographer Jaime Razuri yesterday, following his release in Gaza a week after he was snatched by gunmen in the latest foreigner kidnapping in the volatile territory.
Razuri said he was “very happy and full of energy” following his release late Sunday, when Palestinian security forces handed over the 50-year-old Peruvian national to AFP representatives at Abbas’ compound in Gaza City.
Razuri said his abductors had treated him well during the seven days of his captivity in a building in Gaza City. “Every day they asked me how the food was, if I was cold,” he said. “They were worried about me and I understood that as a signal that they didn’t want to hurt me. It gave me hope,” he said.
In a statement in Paris, French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy hailed Razuri’s liberation and thanked all those who helped bring it about. In Peru, radio and television stations interrupted their Sunday programming to announce Razuri’s liberation. “We have extraordinary news — Jaime Razuri has been freed,” said the presenter on the cable Canal N channel.
