I’m thinking it won’t be long before the media admit what this really is: A civil war. The AP isn’t ready to say so yet.
Hamas gunmen attacked the headquarters of the security forces in northern Gaza, a key prize in the bloody power struggle between the two sides. About 200 Hamas fighters surrounded the compound, where some 500 Fatah gunmen were holed up, and fired mortars and RPGs at the building in the Jebaliya refugee camp.
Hamas also demanded that Fatah-allied security forces abandon their positions, threatening to attack those who remained.
“The warning which we have given you to surrender has ended, and we will attack this position of Zionist collaborators,” Hamas warned over a mosque loudspeaker in Gaza City, shortly before taking up positions near the headquarters of the pro-Fatah Preventive Security Service. Later, there were heavy exchanges of fire.
Reuters is nearly ready to do it.
Hamas gunmen stormed a Fatah security headquarters in Gaza City on Tuesday, moving Palestinians closer to civil war, minutes after the Islamist group’s deadline for its rival to quit key strongholds expired.
A spokesman for President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction said its Central Committee would meet at 8 p.m. (1700 GMT) to weigh whether to remain in the unity government it formed with Hamas in March in a bid to stop internal violence and ease Western sanctions.
In an ultimatum verging on a declaration of war, Hamas’s armed wing had given Fatah until 1100 GMT to evacuate the military intelligence, presidential guard, national security and preventive security headquarters in Gaza City.
After the deadline passed, witnesses said Hamas fighters attacked a large compound controlled by the Fatah-dominated national security forces in Gaza City.
Yep. Civil war. Finally. And again, may both sides win, expending as many men and as much materiel as possible. Please do kill as many terrorists as you can. And watch out for the civilians. Not that I think you will, but actually, I do care about civilian casualties. Innocents are innocents.
Watch for the barrage of rockets into Israel to increase again.