Fatah and Hamas are killing each other in Gaza again. And of course, the AP waters down the headline.
Rival Palestinian Factions Clash
It’s like they’re reporting on the Jets-Sharks feud. It’s all fun and games until the knives come out and Bernardo lies dead on the street. However, the real-life Bernardo here would be the teenaged supporter of Fatah who was shot dead by Hamas. And oh yeah—there were civilian casulties, too. Lots of them. But the AP story doesn’t really play up civilian casualties when they’re not caused by the IDF.
Deadly clashes erupted Monday between rival factions in the Gaza Strip for the first time in more than a month, despite a conciliatory speech toward Hamas by Fatah’s leader, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Five Palestinians were killed on Monday, and a sixth died of his wounds Tuesday morning. Medics said some 60 were injured.
The number of deaths is up to eight now. The teenager was fourteen. One of the deaths was that of an elderly man caught in the crossfire. Once again, marvel at the lack of interest of the murder of boys and old men by terrorists, especially compared with the world’s interest when the IDF, which now has a 97% accuracy rate for killing terrorists, accidentally hits a civilian.
Ynet had a bit more information than that. And in the lede, too.
One Fatah supporter, a teenager, and two Hamas members were shot dead at a demonstration commemorating Fatah’s 43rd anniversary in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis.
Fatah officials said the teenager was shot by Hamas security forces. Hamas said it was Fatah gunfire that killed him.
Hamas said one of its supporters was shot dead as he exited a mosque and a security officer was killed after his jeep was attacked by Fatah gunmen.
So what started the fighting?
Fireworks lit the skies of Gaza after nightfall Monday in celebration of Fatah’s 43rd anniversary, and Fatah backers fired rifles in the air all over Gaza, defying a ban on celebrations by Hamas rulers.
That’s actually not an accurate description. The ban was specifically on celebrations of Fatah’s 43rd anniversary. Hamas doesn’t want the citizens of Gaza to have the freedom of expression that they talked about so nobly, so articulately, in those famous op-eds in major American newspapers. So much for their desire for “freedom for civil society to evolve.” But then, I knew they were lying. You knew they were lying. And they knew they were lying. The only ones who didn’t, apparently, were the editorial page editors of the New York and Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post.
Ah, well. New year, same-old, same-old. No real surprise there.