This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/2707
February 7, 2007
The fighting and the blood has become like a cup of tea, a very normal thing," Hamada said.
Their father, Mohammed, 48, said if the leaders in Mecca don't reach an agreement, he will pull his sons from the warring security factions.
"How much worse can it be?" he said. "Hamada used to have two eyes. Now he has one."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/07/AR2007020700235_pf.html
Wounded Hamas, Fatah Brothers Recovering
by SARAH EL DEEB
The Associated Press
Wednesday, February 7, 2007; 3:30 AM
JEBALIYA REFUGEE CAMP, Gaza Strip -- The two al-Ottol brothers are recovering in separate rooms of their house, wounded in the latest round of fighting between rival Hamas and Fatah militias _ one on each side of the conflict.
Hamada al-Ottol, 19, was wounded while fighting for Fatah, the movement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. He wants revenge. His brother, Tahseen, 22, of Hamas, hopes a summit underway in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, can stop the internal conflict before the rift between them becomes irreconcilable.
More than 100 Palestinians have been killed in months of clashes that followed a Hamas election victory a year ago, with most of the security forces remaining in the hands of Fatah, which lost the vote. Flare-ups have led to fears of an all-out civil war between the two most powerful Palestinian movements.
Abbas is meeting in Mecca with Hamas leaders in the latest in a series of attempts to bridge wide ideological gaps and form a unity government.
The brothers say they feel each other's pain and will never point their guns at each other.
But Hamada didn't want to express his views in his brother's presence. He was interviewed in his room before joining his brother upstairs. He sharply criticized Hamas, blaming it for targeting Fatah members, and said his group only defended itself.
The family had to keep the brothers on two separate floors in the same house because arguments broke out between their visitors, from Fatah and Hamas.
"Our guns have now become impure. The fighting and the blood has become like a cup of tea, a very normal thing," Hamada said.
The two were wounded in the same battle, when Hamas gunmen stormed an uncle's house. Hamada was hit by shrapnel, breaking his jaw and leaving him with only one eye.
Tahseen went to the house to warn his brother but was hit with a bullet in the stomach, he said. Four people died in the battle, two from each side.
The fact that he went to warn his brother, Tahseen said, is proof that brothers still stand up for each other. "I have an opinion and he has his. But the leaders of Hamas and Fatah shouldn't widen this gap between us," he said from his bed.
Their father, Mohammed, 48, said if the leaders in Mecca don't reach an agreement, he will pull his sons from the warring security factions.
"How much worse can it be?" he said. "Hamada used to have two eyes. Now he has one."
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Children of "Mini Parliament" Asks Rivals to Stop Fighting |
RAFAH, Palestine, February 5,2007 (IPC) - -"Either agree and hold down your dirty rifle or leave our homeland" this demand chanted by tens of eth Palestinian children of Mini parliament who go out in chilly cool in Rafah streets, naked chests in anger protest against the unfortunate infighting incidents in most parts of Gaza Strip, hundreds casualties were yielded, many are civilians victims.
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The children of "Mini Parliament" chanted a call for all the residents to break the ice and poured into the streets and hurled the feud people with stones to oblige them to cease infighting which seethe Gazans in terror and trauma.
The children stood up at the premises of their parliament downtown Rafah city and installed wooded incarnates of weapon on the ground and started to destroyed them with stones before sitting them on fire, expressing their willingness of more secure life and rejection to internecine fighting.
A children of "Mini Parliament" read a statement before the journalists, which demanded the two rivals to stop fighting and pinpoint their weapons to the enemy saying " your dirty weapons start to burn us and kill our childhood .. . we do not feel safety any more and we start hate you and wish your departure."
He added " our beloved Fateh and Hamas men, our love to Palestine is very much bigger our love to you that is going to fade by time due to your shameful doings."
On his part, Abed Al Raouf Barbakh, chief of Palestinian children Mini Parliament of Rafah asserted that such an activity is initiated by the children themselves, pointing out that he tried to prevent the children to strip off their chest lest that being afflicted with a cool but they insisted to do so in a hope that their outcry finds an echo and the rivals stop fighting.
This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/2707