Gaza battles raise fear of civil war

[barb162]

June 12, 2007 - 5:56 PM

Gaza battles raise fear of civil war
By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA (Reuters) - In what looked ever more like civil war, the forces of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas battled those of the Islamist prime minister across Gaza on Tuesday and their unity government headed for collapse.

The largest security force loyal to Abbas, who is favoured by Western powers, was ordered on to the streets to defeat what his secular Fatah supporters called a "coup" by Hamas Islamists after Hamas gunmen stormed a key Fatah security base in Gaza.

At least nine men were killed and 50 wounded, hospital officials said, taking to 29 the number of dead in the coastal enclave since Saturday. Early on Tuesday, the Gaza homes of both Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas were fired on.

The European Union said there was an imminent risk of civil war if fighting continued and U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged support for Abbas's efforts "to restore law and order".

snip
http://www.swissinfo.org/eng/international/ticker/detail/Gaza_battles_raise_fear_of_civil_war.html?siteSect=143&sid=7913412&cKey=1181671696000

[razzleberry]

1. nothing new about a power struggle .n/t

[barb162]

2. Other than in numbers dead and injured, the problem of people

cowering in their homes, people getting thrown off roofs, people getting massacred while sick in hospital beds, etc.

Frankly, this seems way more serious than previous in-fighting.

[razzleberry]

4. the unpleasantness will continue until one side is wiped out

you can't have two street gangs running the same territory
somebody has to lose.


except for the lack of a geographic component,
(the two sides control different zones)
I would call this a civil war.

[barb162]

3. ...

Gaza heading towards a civil war?
June 12, 2007


Gunmen from rival Palestinian factions fought street battles on Tuesday in a new surge of deadly violence that threatens to topple the government and drive the territory closer to civil war.

snip
The apparently no-holds barred conflict threatens the very foundations of a Hamas-Fatah coalition that took office less than three months ago in a bid to halt the political feuding that has killed nearly 180 people since December.

Heavily armed fighters manned checkpoints of concrete blocks and tyres as others lay low on rooftops in Gaza City where columns of black smoke spewed into the sky and building fronts were riddled with countless bullet holes.

snip
http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?sf=2749&click_id=2749&art_id=nw20070612151117695C708832&set_id=6

[LeftishBrit]

5. This is all so depressing.