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[uzi]

Quote: PA intelligence chief badly hurt in Gaza blast

By Arnon Regular and Yuval Azoulay, Haaretz Correspondents and Agencies

Palestinian intelligence service chief Gen. Tareq Abu Rajab sustained moderate to serious wounds in an explosion that tore through the headquarters of the Palestinian general intelligence service in Gaza City Saturday, Palestinian security officials said.

Rajab was whisked away to Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv for treatment of his wounds.

According to the officials one of Abu Rajab's bodyguards was killed and nine people were wounded in the explosion.




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Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas described the blast as "a very unfortunate incident and annoying at the same time and threatens [the PA] with grave danger."

Abbas made the statement as he emerged from a meeting with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick. The two met on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Sharm al-Sheikh.

Abbas said he had ordered an investigation into the explosion.

Tawfiq Tirawi, deputy to Tareq Abu Rajab, the intelligence chief who was seriously wounded in Saturday's attack, hinted that Hamas could be responsible for the attack, saying the group had been responsible for a previous attempt to kill Abu Rajab two years ago.

Asked if it appeared that Hamas was also responsible for Saturday's attack, Tirawi said: "Everything is possible. I don't rule anything out for now."

Some Fatah members demanded that Abbas dissolve the Hamas government and call a new election. A group calling itself the Fatah Protection Unit also demanded that Hamas disband its 3,000-strong militia within three days. The militia was deployed earlier this week, despite Abbas' vehement opposition.

If the militia is not removed, "we are ready to deploy our men and our fighters in the streets ... to protect Fatah men and all of Palestinian society," the statement said.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas canceled all appointments for Saturday. Haniyeh formed a committee to investigate the incident, said government spokesman Ghazi Hamad.

"We are asking not to make early judgments, accusations or responses that might lead to tension in the Palestinian streets," said Hamad, in apparent anticipation of Hamas being held responsible.

The intelligence service said the blast was caused by a bomb and that Abu Rajab was the target of an assassination attempt.

"It's a clear assassination attempt. We are launching an investigation to get to the perpetrators," a senior general intelligence agency official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

But Khaled Abu Hilal, spokesman for the Hamas-controlled Interior Ministry, suggested the blast was set off when one of Abu Rajab's bodyguards inadvertently dropped a hand grenade.

However, Abu Hilal later said his initial comment was based on inaccurate information.

"We are asking not to make early judgments, accusations or responses that might lead to tension in the Palestinian streets," said Hamad, in apparent anticipation of Hamas being held responsible.

Blast goes off at elevator
Abu Rajab and six aides and bodyguards got into an elevator and were close to the second floor when the blast went off. Ali Abu Haisra, one of Abu Rajab's bodyguard, was killed immediately, and Abu Rajab and five others in the elevator were seriously wounded, sustaining injuries to the lower body.

Three others were also hurt, including a secretary riding in an adjacent elevator, doctors said.

Several members of a new Hamas militia fired toward the vehicles, possibly because they believed they were coming under attack, witnesses said.

Abu Rajab underwent surgery at Shifa where Gaza doctors stopped the bleeding and stabilized him before taking the intelligence chief in a heavily guarded Palestinian ambulance to the Israel-Gaza border crossing.

Abu Rajab had a bandage covering his forehead and a neck brace keeping his head steady.

Lying on a bloody sheet, he was rolled on a gurney from the Palestinian ambulance to the waiting Israeli vehicle. Israeli medical personnel immediately treated Abu Rajab before putting him on the ambulance and transporting him to Tel Aviv's Ichilov Hospital.

The explosion caused massive damage and bomb experts were sent to the scene to investigate.

Following the explosion Palestinian police clashed with members of Hamas' independent police force.

Abu Rajab is considered one of Fatah's key men in the Gaza Strip. Appointed as intelligence chief 15 months ago, he escaped one assassination attempt in 2004. He was treated for a serious head injury in an Israeli hospital.

Security chiefs meet to quiet tension
The explosion came shortly after rival security commanders from the Palestinian Hamas and Fatah movements met to try to settle a dispute over a 3,000-strong force of militants deployed earlier in the week by the Hamas-led government.

The meeting also aims to quell Fatah anger at the challenge to its security mechanism posed by a new Hamas security force.

Tensions between the ruling Hamas party and Fatah have grown throughout the past week, culminating Friday with the confiscation from a Hamas spokesman of over 500,000 euro ($639,000) upon his entry into the Gaza Strip.

In the latest incident in a string of clashes between Fatah and Hamas, at least four people were hurt in a gunfight between Hamas' new police force and Fatah security.

At Saturday's meeting Hamas agreed to keep its gunmen away from the Palestinian security headquarters to avoid friction with the forces loyal to Abbas, a security official said on condition of anonymity. Hamas officials were not immediately available for comment.

The meeting was attended by Interior Minister Sayed Siyam of Hamas and Rashid Abu Shbak, the Gaza commander of the security forces loyal to Abbas.

Abu Shbak renewed an offer by Abbas to integrate the Hamas gunmen into the security forces and bring them under his command. Participants did not say how Hamas responded to that offer.

Abbas orders probe into Hamas cash transfer
Mahmoud Abbas ordered a criminal investigation Friday, after Palestinian border officials confiscated more than 500,000 euros from Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri at Gaza's Rafah border crossing with Egypt.

According to Hamas government spokesman Razi Hamad, the money was intended to serve as relief for the Palestinian people and prisoners.

The amount of money confiscated is estimated to exceed 500,000 euros, however no official report has specified the exact amount.

Hamas gunmen immediately rushed to the Rafah terminal, which is guarded by Palestinian Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' guard, raising fears of a fresh clash between rival forces.

Julio De La Guardia, a spokesman for a European Union contingent that monitors the crossing, said travelers crossing through Rafah must declare all sums over $2,000 and explain its origin.

"He [Abu Zuhri] did not declare that money, he tried to smuggle it," De La Guardia said.

A Palestinian security source said Abu Zuhri initially refused to leave the terminal without the money, which was confiscated by Palestinian customs agents. However, a short time later, he left the terminal without the money, accompanied by the Hamas gunmen.

Officials said Abu Zuhri was on his way back from Qatar, whose government has pledged to give the Palestinian Authority $50 million, but has been stymied by Western economic sanctions against the militant Hamas.

Facing a U.S.-led funding and banking blockade, the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority has been unable to pay salaries to 165,000 government employees.




http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/717889.html


Israel should be destroyed and Israelis blown up, until you need medical treatment that is. Then you want to be treated by Israeli doctors.

[ToonArmyIsComing]

More importantly, what a nightmare scenario. Now, the violent Hamas thugs and the corrupt Fatah forces are regularly clashing and there is no telling how it is going to end up.

[uzi]

Hamas are getting serious. Looks like the Zionists aren't the only enemy.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/717967.html

Quote: Palestinian security forces say foiled killing of Abbas loyalist

By Danny Rubinstein and Arnon Regular, Haaretz Correspondents and AP

Palestinian security forces said on Sunday they had foiled an attempt to kill a top commander loyal to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, a day after another of his allies was wounded in a suspected assassination bid.

A bomb weighing 70 kg (154 lbs) was found outside the Gaza Strip home of Rashid Abu Shbak and defused, a Palestinian Preventive Security Service officer told Reuters.

"We believe the device was meant to be detonated when the chief left his house for work," the officer said. "We believe this was an assassination attempt." He did not name suspects.


Shbak is a member of Fatah. Tensions between Hamas and Fatah have intensified in recent months, spilling over into occasional street violence.

Fatah sources accuse Hamas of placing the bomb, as well as for the attempted assassination of the chief of the Palestinian Authority intelligence service in the Gaza Strip, Gen. Tareq Abu Rajab on Saturday. Abu Rajab was badly wounded on Saturday by an explosion in Gaza that Abbas called an attempted assassination. An aide was killed.

A top security official in the West Bank, Tawfiq Tirawi, indicated to reporters that Hamas militants who have recently formed an alternative security force might be responsible.

Hamas denied responsibility for the attack on Abu Rajab.

Fatah threatens to step up clashes with Hamas on PA future
Fatah is threatening to take the armed conflict between its forces and Hamas in the Gaza Strip to the West Bank.

Senior PA officials said that Fatah is interested in replicating the clashes between Fatah and Hamas in the West Bank, where Fatah is stronger.

The conflict between the two organizations escalated further Saturday, with the assassination attempt on Abu Rajab, a staunch adversary of Hamas who survived with moderate to serious injuries.

According to Palestinian sources, at around 10 A.M. a blast tore through an elevator reserved for the use of Abu Rajab and his staff at the headquarters of the intelligence service.

The attackers apparently set off the bomb when Abu Rajab was at the entrance to the lift. Abu Rajab's nephew Ala Abu Hasira was killed in the blast, and six other intelligence service members were seriously injured.

Abu Rajab was initially transferred under heavy guard to Shifa Hospital in Gaza and subsequently to Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv.

Palestinian sources said the attack could not have been carried out without assistance from within the intelligence service.

Tawfiq Tirawi, head of the intelligence service in the West Bank, said, "There is information that hired elements and others have penetrated the security forces," adding, "an attack on Abu Mazen [PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas] cannot be ruled out.

"These attacks are taking place in Gaza but they might also move to the West Bank. These elements are playing with fire," he said.

Abu Rajab has served as head of the intelligence service in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of 2005, replacing the previous head, Amin Alhindi. Abu Rajab is considered close to Abbas. He is a staunch adversary of the armed groups in the Gaza Strip, including Hamas and the Popular Resistance Committees.

Last week Abu Rajab was appointed head of the committee to examine Hamas' weapons smuggling attempt into Jordan.

In 2005, Abu Rajab survived an assassination attempt when his convoy was attacked on the Gaza coastal road not far from Saturday's attack.

Saturday's hit ratchets up tensions in Gaza, which are already high after Hamas deployed its own security service there last week, and following a series of incidents there between Hamas and Fatah operatives.

Abbas, in Sharm el-Sheikh for the World Economic Forum, called the assassination attempt "a very unfortunate incident, and worrisome because it threatens [the PA] with grave danger."

Abbas has ordered the establishment of a committee of inquiry to investigate the attack.