Image Credit: Mohammed Omer, Rafah Today 2007-01-28.
Abbas call for early elections to appease US and Israel said to cause violence
Rafah Today via BBSNews 2007-01-28 -- By Mohammed Omer. Yahia Abu Bakra, a 2 year old baby was among the dead in the Gaza Strip on Saturday which brings the number of people killed to 18 and another 48 injured in deadly clashes between the two factions in the beleaguered coastal strip since the violence erupted late Thursday. The situation has been quite tense since then. No doubt when the clashes started most of the casualties were the innocent. Those whom we were able to identify according to Palestinian sources are Khalil Al Khatib, 17, a bystander, and Mohammed Khattab, 33, officer for the national security force. Both of them were killed close to Gaza's main hospital Al Shifa where clashes errupted between gunmen from Hamas and Fatah movement.
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Palestinian children are looking at 2 year old baby Yahia Abu Bakra who was killed in the Hamas and Fatah clashes in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.
Image Credit: Mohammed Omer, Rafah Today 2007-01-28. |
During the funerals, the brothers and sisters of the two year old baby Yahia Abu Bakara were gathered around his body and giving him the final farewell look before his body was removed to be buried.
The Islamic Movement of Hamas, which heads the Palestinian government, announced late Friday that it was suspending talks with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas regarding the formation of national unity government due to outbreak of violence. Both Hamas and Fatah had started a new round of negotiations on forming a national unity government which is considered more acceptable to Western donors such as the European Union.
All these disputes and fighting started when the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has announced in public his intention for early elections. This speech provoked the Palestinians, and mainly Hamas supporters, and therefore demonstrations took place everywhere.
Many Palestinians consider the US administration's support for Abbas' presidential guard as a way to turn against the democratically elected government—this came after USA administration has given 86 million dollars as Aid to empower the Palestinian Authority.
A Palestinian citizen Hassenien Abdelhadi from Gaza City said commenting on this issue: "We were hoping that the US government will support the Palestinian's right and encourage the democratic choice, not to empower presidential guards against the new elected Hamas government." He is the father of 4 daughters and 2 boys, and had lost his job since the Intifada started and is no longer able to feed his kids.
According to Palestinian sources, more than 30 Palestinians were killed from the period of 15 December up until early January 2007. The worst incident was Friday's attack, when a group of militants attack Al Hedayah mosque in Gaza City killing 3 Palestinians and other 19 were injured—the attack took place right after people had finished the dawn prayers.
Today clashes started again in Gaza City next to the Islamic university, where two civilians were injured. The clashes were very heavy which stops the tragic movement in one of Gaza's main streets.
Fatah movement on the other side announced that it has kidnapped 24 Hamas members.
It's been a year since Hamas won the January elections. It was hard to tell who was more surprised at the victory — Hamas, or Fatah, the other big Palestinian faction. But a year of sanctions and lack of salaries has passed, and still many consider Hamas winning the election a slap in the face for Fatah.
It turned out to be a rough year for all Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip and West Bank under the Israeli Occupation Forces. America and European Union were constantly pushing for democracy as a solution in the region for stagnation and corruption in the Arab world. The message from USA and European Union was basically that Palestinians have the right to vote for whomever they like, but the winner has to be approved by USA and EU, otherwise, USA and EU will not deal with the winner.
A 15 year old boy was killed by Israeli bullets next to Sofa crossing in the middle of Gaza Strip. His body was brought to Al Aqsa hospital some hours later on together with other two other children who were injured in the same incident. Both bodies were held for many hours, but they were released later on.
Mohammed Omer is a young journalist/photographer in the Gaza Strip. He and his family have a very rough time in living day to day and they have lost much. In October of 2003, one of Mohammed's younger bothers, Issam, was injured and had to have a leg amputated. Later in the same month another younger brother, Hussam Al-Mouhagir, was killed in his home; shot to death by the Israeli Army that occupies and regularly devastates Palestine. These stories are written by Mohammed who knows no peace, only the continued devastation forced upon civilians who have little voice in the world. Mohammed has covered the Occupied Territories for several years. In 2006 Mohammed won the New American Media National Ethnic Media Award for best Youth Voice. Visit Mohammed's Web site, or write to him to get a more complete picture of what is really happening that main-stream news sources rarely brings to its audience. We are proud to feature articles from Mohammed Omer here at BBSNews, his reporting is some of the only original, on the ground reporting available from the Israeli Occupied Territories.
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