Monday, June 18, 2007

The last 48 hours "of Gaza" leading to the civil war

"What events happened in the last 48 hours in Gaza that led to the Palestinian civil war and who to be blamed for it?" will remain a task for historians to be determined. Now, "History" is typically written by winners but this might not be the case this time. An independent reporter Charles Levinson has an interesting blog called "Conflict Blatter" and he reported the events in Gaza that led to the civil war step by step:

Here is a timeline of events in the 48 hours leading up to civil war as relayed to me by a close adviser to the Commander of the now dissolved Presidential Guards:

SATURDAY 10:30 a.m. - A family closely tied to Hamas’ armed wing the Ezzedine al Qassam Brigades sets up a checkpoint outside the Abu Jihad Al Wazir mosque on the beach road about two km south of Abbas’ compound in Gaza City. Within minutes they kidnap a Presidential Guard soldier whose brother is the bodyguard for senior Fatah official Abdel Hakim Awad.

11 a.m. - The joint faction committee is alerted regarding the crisis. The committee has representatives of all the Palestinian factions, all the security forces, and the Qassam Brigades, and was established for the very purpose of resolving disputes peacefully. Hamas assures the committee that they aren’t holding the kidnapped guardsman. It’s just a family dispute they say.
Shortly after 11 a.m. - Another presidential guardsman is kidnapped. This time the kidnapped soldier is a nephew of the General in charge of the Presidential Guards.
The family of the second kidnapped soldier, the Al Buhaysi family, immediately kidnaps a member of the Qassam brigades before any attempts at negotiation have begun.

Checkpoints spring up all over the central and northern Gaza Strip.
A series of tit-for-tat kidnappings continue as Fatah and Hamas members are picked off at enemy checkpoints.
Samih al Madhoun kidnaps a doctor and Hamas member who is attending his brother’s graduation from the Presidential Guards training academy. He kneecaps him and dumps him in street.

SATURDAY evening - Fatah grabs a high value Qassam member who confesses information regarding a past assassination in the Gaza Strip. (no more details on either the kidnapped Hamas member or the nature of his confession are provided).
Hamas is suddenly willing to negotiate and agrees to a prisoner exchange.
Prisoner exchange takes time as Fatah leadership tries to reach all the disparate Fatah factions that are holding prisoners. Hamas is unhappy.

SUNDAY 2 a.m. - Presidential Guard officer Moataz Abu Shanab is found in the streets having been kidnapped by Hamas and kneecapped.
Around noonish - Force 17 soldier Mohammad al Suwerky is kidnapped and thrown bound and blindfolded from the roof of the 18 story Al Ghifary tower.
Samih Al Madhoun and Force 17 each go on kidnapping spree.

By 9 p.m. on SUNDAY every security force soldier is armed, carrying no less than six extra ammo clips on his body and on high alert.

MONDAY morning reports start pouring in that Hamas is beginning to surround security bases in the Gaza Strip and civil war erupts Monday

2 comments:

Salim said...

In the name of Allah. I am sure Allah is happy with those barbarians

Mustafa said...

Hamas showed finally its bloody nature