VARIOUS: Israel hospitalises some Fatah men, sends others back to Gaza after Hamas crackdown

Record ID: 375037

  • Title: VARIOUS: Israel hospitalises some Fatah men, sends others back to Gaza after Hamas crackdown
  • Date: 3rd August 2008
  • Summary: (BN8) JERUSALEM (AUGUST 3, 2008) (REUTERS) ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER EHUD OLMERT ARRIVING AT CABINET MEETING ISRAELI DEFENCE MINISTER EHUD BARAK ARRIVING AT MEETING ISRAELI FOREIGN MINISTER TZIPI LIVNI ARRIVING ISRAELI CABINET MINISTER ISAAC HERZOG SPEAKING TO REPORTERS (SOUNDBITE) (English) ISRAELI CABINET MINISTER ISAAC HERZOG SAYING: "We are seeing unique circumstances
  • Embargoed: 18th August 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA29433G6FQ8ETCCXMY7KPW65HR
  • Story Text: Israel hospitalises scores of Palestinian men affiliated with President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah but send back dozens of others to the Hamas-run Gaza Strip after they fled the coastal territory following fierce fighting between the rival groups.
    About 30 pro-Fatah Palestinians who fled to Israel after fierce clashes in the Gaza Strip were sent back to the Hamas-controlled enclave on Sunday (August 3) and the Islamist group said its forces immediately detained them.
    They were among 180 supporters of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction granted refuge in Israel on Saturday after nine Palestinians were killed and 95 wounded during a Hamas assault on their Gaza City neighbourhood.
    The fighting, part of a crackdown by Hamas after a July 25 bombing that killed five of its militants and a girl, was the bloodiest since the Islamist group routed its secular rivals and took over the coastal enclave more than a year ago.
    Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said dozens of those who fled the fighting returned to the Gaza Strip and were detained.
    The 30 men sent back to Gaza are pro-Fatah members of the Helles clan, who were criticised by Fatah officials in the West Bank for failing to resist Hamas's takeover in June 2007.
    A spokesman for Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said Abbas had asked Israel to send the Fatah fugitives back to Gaza. The spokesman said the wounded would stay for treatment in Israel and the rest would be returned to the Gaza Strip.
    Abbas's office declined to comment on whether he had approved the return of the Fatah supporters to Gaza.
    Fatah's Hussein Al-Shaikh, the senior civil affairs official in the Palestinian Authority, said only: "We are discussing with the Israelis how to allow the people to return to Gaza."
    Saturday's fighting erupted when Hamas forces surrounded the Shejaia district of Gaza City to arrest 11 suspected bombers.
    Among those arrested was Zaki Assakni, a Fatah man on the run who Hamas says co-planned the July 25 bomb blast, as well as others that targeted its headquarters in the Gaza Strip, a Hamas security official said.
    Assakni had taken refuge in the Helles clan's "security compound", the official said, adding that Hamas security forces had discovered weapons and explosives workshops there, as well as a training base for clan fighters and Fatah fugitives.
    An official at Israel's Barlizai hospital near the Gaza Strip said 11 Fatah members from Gaza were being treated there.
    Hamas gunmen fired at the Helles clansmen as they came through the Nahal Oz crossing into Israel on Saturday, Colonel Ron Ashov, commander of Israeli forces there, told Army Radio.
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