[Ha'aretz] Avi Issacharoff - For the first time Fatah can mark a victory. In all the previous gun battles, the number of Fatah casualties was always higher than those of Hamas. During the weekend, Hamas lost more of its people. On Friday night, Hamas' Executive Force surrounded the home of senior Fatah official Mansur al-Shlayel in Jabalya, setting up roadblocks to prevent Fatah reinforcements from arriving. Muhammad Dahlan, who is in charge of the security forces controlled by Abbas - a role he denies - called up all Fatah commanders and warned them that if anything happened to al-Shlayel, "I will fire the lot of you." In less than an hour, a force of 70 armed men, equipped with armored personnel carriers, broke through the Hamas roadblocks and surrounded the Hamas force besieging al-Shlayel's home. During the incident, seven Hamas men were killed and dozens were injured.
2007-01-29 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive