Hamas fight with Islamic radicals kills 13 in Gaza

Hamas fight with Islamic radicals kills 13 in Gaza

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Islamic radicals from an al-Qaida-inspired group battled Hamas security in the Gaza Strip Friday in shootouts that killed at least 13 people.

The fighting began when Hamas forces surrounded a mosque in the southern Gaza town of Rafah where about 100 members of Jund Ansar Allah, or the Soldiers of the Companions of God, were holed up, including some armed with suicide belts and rifles, according to residents of the area.

The confrontation was triggered when the leader of the group defied Gaza's Hamas rulers by declaring in a Friday prayer sermon that the territory was an Islamic emirate.

Jund Ansar Allah and a number of other small, shadowy radical groups seek to enforce an even stricter version of Islamic law in Gaza and have criticized Hamas for not doing so. They are also upset that the Hamas regime has honored a cease-fire with Israel for the past seven months.

Hamas has said it seeks to set an example and does not impose its views on others. It also says its violent struggle is against Israel, not the Western world. The more radical groups' calls for global Jihad undermines Hamas' attempt to appear more moderate to Western eyes.

The hard-line groups are perhaps the most serious opposition Hamas has faced since it seized control of Gaza and ousted its rivals in the Fatah movement in a five-day, bloody civil war in June 2007.

The leader of Jund Ansar Allah, Abdel-Latif Moussa, warned Hamas forces against trying to enter the mosque compound.

"If Hamas does that, it will be their end," he said.

Shortly afterward, a gunbattle broke out between the militants inside the mosque and Hamas forces surrounding it. Hamas officers then raided the mosque.

The group's leader had already fled the mosque, and Hamas forces surrounded his house later and waged another gunbattle with his men.

A large explosion was heard from Moussa's home late Friday, and the house partially collapsed, witnesses and security officials reported. It was unclear whether the explosion was set off by Hamas forces or militants with explosives holed up inside. Hamas has closed off the area and ambulances have been unable to access the scene of the fighting.

At least 13 people were killed in both gunbattles, including a senior Hamas official and an 11-year-old girl, according to Gaza health official Moaiya Hassanain. Over 150 people were wounded, including 29 in serious condition, many of whom were civilians caught in the crossfire, Hassanain said.

Hamas government spokesman Taher Nunu said the Hamas leadership was engaging in an operation against "outlaws" and called on Moussa's followers to surrender to the authorities.

Jund Ansar Allah first came to public attention in June after it claimed responsibility for a failed attempt to attack Israel from Gaza on horseback.

The group claims inspiration from al-Qaida, but no ties have been confirmed.

In July, three Muslim extremists from the group holed themselves up in a building in southern Gaza, surrendering to Hamas police only after a lengthy standoff.

It is unclear how many members Jund Ansar Allah or other similar extremist groups have in Gaza. source

_______________

Irony is a funny thing.

 

???? no ties have been confirmed ????

very interesting.

http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/spages/1107640.html
Published 5 hours ago by the "palestinians specialist" of the left-wing israeli newspaper I read, "ha'aretz".

Translation of the first two paragraphs:

It seems that the palestinian reporter (of which I have never heard) is trying to make the ibn-musah guys look "better" in the eyes of the western world. A palestinian civilian interviewed on the israeli radio something like 4 hours ago and he called ibn-musah supporters: "al-qaida".

As I already said, that's very sad that the palestinians take two steps back to the middle ages with each step israel makes forward. This is not good news for Israel.

 

Chaos , this is fascinating and puzzling at the same time,since both hamas and al qaida are both sunni groups and both are radical groups.

 

Update:
22 dead, including abd al-latif mussah, 125 wounded. 6 unarmed civilians dead.
The mosque where moussah was preaching was severly damaged, as it become a battle field.

source

 

these are political groups. not religious organization.
for some reason people want to make every conflict about religion when in reality it has nothing to do with it.
i think to solve the situation in ME the first step should be recognizing that these are political conflicts. it would make everything much easier.
if you remember in my peace plan, i tried to treat israeli Palestinian conflict as a political issue and it was very easy to solve all the issues.

 

Pizza, they are more religious based and that was the idea behind their original beliefs and why they were founded. Remember I talked about who helped found the organization?

 

what they used to be is no longer true. they have evolved into a political/military organization. most political organization in ME is mosque based, because that is the only area that the govt rarely attacks.

 

Good point, I really should brush up on my hamas reading lately. I stand corrected

 

i do not have any particular understanding of hamas other than what is in the news. i consider the source, put the information in perspective of where it is coming from, allow for the distortion that the source can and does produce and come to my conclusion. but i must say haaretz and jpost are my most favorite source of info about ME politics which is my hobby .
much better than fox and cnn for sure.

 

Yeah, it has nothing to do with religion. C'mon, you have to admit it is at the very least a factor. There are no doubt political considerations as well, but it is not honest to call them political non-religious organizations.

 

what is a non religious organization?
i know what a religious organization is.
like catholic charities, chabad . mosqes churches
i knowwhat a political organization is
like republicans democrts communists bolsheviks

 

My God man, this is pointless.

It is my own fault. I have you on ignore and checked what you posted and replied. I should have never bothered. What a waste.

I will write one more sentence, if you retain anything from this post this should be it: Hamas and Jund Ansar Allah are both religious organizations.

 

can you put me back on ignore list.
I will write one more sentence, if you retain anything from this post this should be it: Hamas and Jund Ansar Allah are political and military organizations since their goal and scope of operation is political and military.
that is that and case closed

 

Very interesting opinion article in Ha'aretz of today related with the topic of the thread.

http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1107735.html

Highlight:

P.S. Brand new, google Palestine. http://www.google.ps/

 

There shouldn't be any conflict over religion.

But here is the father of the PLO and Uncle of Arafat together with Hitler.

 

How horrible. Hamas and even more extreme group got into a fight. Hamas destroyed them while losing some of its own people. Lots of dead extremists. I wonder if the UN is going to step in and declare it a crime against humanity.

 

What bothers me is the fact that the fierce fighters in the name of palestinians and muslims stay away from this thread.
If Israel kills 1 innocent child - they will scream, post tons of pictures of blood along with anti-semitic materials going back to quotes of the fathers of zionism..
If Hamas kills 206 fatah members, or 30 al-qaida members who take refuge in a mosque: that's not interesting at all. They have absolutely nothing to say about it, and couldn't care less for the dead.

 

I would like to step in and say, I think Pizza's is a correct, and apt point. Many folks don't realize how much the surface apparents - say, religious motivation - is subsumed to the "meat" underneath: power, how to get it, how to hold it. Think of Khomeini; the Shah was an idiot, who sought to decimate the pods of power extant in the mullahs, the mosques, and the intelligentsia swirling around both. Khomeini, whatever his religious sensibilities (and I'm not entirely convinced here), saw the potential to tap those pods of power, and use them. It's a bolshevik solution, in a way - tap the glowing seeds of power, tap the country; no widefront, mass movement needed - that's for later, to validate what lies naked underneath, the quest for power.

Religion, and any of its variants (the cult of personality, etc.), help to validate the underlying political and economic mobilization, but they aren't the underlying, fundamental spur, usually, in my experience.

 

whoever controls the helm of the religion controls the masses in a lot of places in the world. not only in muslem countries. it is a powerful force. so why surrender the helm of the religion to the extremists? and some call that smart or aware. seems to me it is stupid and blind

 

Well religious or political....It simply shows what a humane organization Hamas is as are or were the simple peaceful folks .......

who gunned it out with Hamas killing a slew of one another.

How tragic.