A casualty in the Hamas/Fatah civil war

The Washington Post today also features an article about the Fatah Hamas war focusing on the death of Majd Barghouti, a Hamas sympathizer. Missing from the account are the stories of how Hamas killed members of Fatah last year – by throwing them off roofs – or their “kneecapping” of their victims.

When the preacher’s body arrived at the hospital, his back was scarlet where he had been whipped with pipes. His legs were black with bruises. His wrists were sliced open and bloodied.The Palestinian Authority, which had been holding Majd Barghouti in an intelligence-service prison for the previous week, soon declared that the popular Hamas imam, or prayer leader, had died of a heart attack.

But eyewitness accounts, photographs, video and an independent Palestinian investigation released this month suggested that he was tortured to death during his February detention.

 

Later Griff Witte reports:

Historically, Hamas has been stronger in Gaza while Fatah has dominated the West Bank. But the trend lines of Palestinian public opinion in recent months have defied geography: Hamas’s popularity is surging across the board and Fatah’s is waning. Hamas’s appeal relies in part on a militant response to what it sees as Israeli aggression, such as the makeshift rockets that Gazans fire into southern Israel, while Fatah engages in peace talks with Israel that have yielded scant progress.

 

I was pleasantly surprised to see a qualification here. “[W]hat it sees,” is correct. Israel, usually is defending its land not launching offensives.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.