An Important Story
By Mel Frykberg
"RAMALLAH, Jun 3 (IPS) - A surge in confidence, following unprecedented U.S. political support, led to the Palestinian Authority's bloody crackdown on a Hamas cell in the northern West Bank on Sunday which left six Palestinians dead.
However, reports of questionable Palestinian Authority (PA) tactics, including the use of Palestinian civilians as human shields, has brought the operation into question and left many Palestinians angry......
Eyewitness reports suggest that in addition to the PA cooperating with Israel on an intelligence level, it also resorted to using some of Israel's arrest techniques.
One of Al-Jazeera's correspondents in the area was placed under arrest and taken for interrogation by PA intelligence officers after the network aired controversial footage......
But witnesses allege that the owner of the building and his wife, both elderly cancer patients, were used as human shields by the PA men, leading to the death of the man and serious injury to the woman. They further accuse PA forces of obstructing an ambulance trying to evacuate the wounded. The woman remains in hospital with her hand amputated. She is surrounded by PA security men who have refused to allow her family or friends to visit her.
Israeli soldiers have been videoed and documented regularly using Palestinian civilians as human shields and holding up ambulances trying to evacuate and help the wounded........
Strong U.S. support for the PA underlined during PA President Mahmoud Abbas's recent meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington, practically coincided with the timing of the bloody gun battle in the north......
Some reports have alleged that the PA has warned the families of wanted Hamas activists that unless they gave themselves up, the PA would hunt the men down and kill them, something the Israelis have done on a regular basis when pursuing wanted fugitives......
But the danger remains. Unless Obama can force some kind of breakthrough in the near future, the unpopular and marginalised Abbas could see his fractured, western-backed government collapse completely.
Israel and the U.S. would then be left to deal with a strengthened and reinvigorated Hamas, which at the moment shows no signs of backing down."
"RAMALLAH, Jun 3 (IPS) - A surge in confidence, following unprecedented U.S. political support, led to the Palestinian Authority's bloody crackdown on a Hamas cell in the northern West Bank on Sunday which left six Palestinians dead.
However, reports of questionable Palestinian Authority (PA) tactics, including the use of Palestinian civilians as human shields, has brought the operation into question and left many Palestinians angry......
Eyewitness reports suggest that in addition to the PA cooperating with Israel on an intelligence level, it also resorted to using some of Israel's arrest techniques.
One of Al-Jazeera's correspondents in the area was placed under arrest and taken for interrogation by PA intelligence officers after the network aired controversial footage......
But witnesses allege that the owner of the building and his wife, both elderly cancer patients, were used as human shields by the PA men, leading to the death of the man and serious injury to the woman. They further accuse PA forces of obstructing an ambulance trying to evacuate the wounded. The woman remains in hospital with her hand amputated. She is surrounded by PA security men who have refused to allow her family or friends to visit her.
Israeli soldiers have been videoed and documented regularly using Palestinian civilians as human shields and holding up ambulances trying to evacuate and help the wounded........
Strong U.S. support for the PA underlined during PA President Mahmoud Abbas's recent meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington, practically coincided with the timing of the bloody gun battle in the north......
Some reports have alleged that the PA has warned the families of wanted Hamas activists that unless they gave themselves up, the PA would hunt the men down and kill them, something the Israelis have done on a regular basis when pursuing wanted fugitives......
But the danger remains. Unless Obama can force some kind of breakthrough in the near future, the unpopular and marginalised Abbas could see his fractured, western-backed government collapse completely.
Israel and the U.S. would then be left to deal with a strengthened and reinvigorated Hamas, which at the moment shows no signs of backing down."
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