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MIDEAST: Gaza Border Tension Sparks Security Concerns

Mel Frykberg

GAZA CITY, Apr 15 2010 (IPS) - Tension on Israel’s border with Gaza has increased over the last two weeks. A number of rockets hit Israel while ensuing clashes between the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) and armed Palestinians left a number of Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers dead.

Gazan dairy bombed out in Israeli air raid. Credit: Mel Frykberg/IPS

Gazan dairy bombed out in Israeli air raid. Credit: Mel Frykberg/IPS

Further, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) in Gaza has warned of a growing atmosphere of chaos in the coastal territory as it says the security situation is continuing to deteriorate.

During the last few months Gaza’s Hamas authorities have had to deal with several attacks on Palestinian NGOs and a bombing attack on a Red Cross convoy.

Grenades and guns have been used to settle personal disputes between clashing family clans and criminal elements, and vicious rivalry between competing political factions has involved torture and extra-judicial killings.

Attacks on Hamas security forces have increased while Salafist extremist groups, allegedly with links to al-Qaeda, have threatened war on rivals they accuse of being insufficiently devout and too accommodating of Israel.

On Tuesday afternoon there appeared to be an increase in Israeli military activity on Israel’s Erez border crossing with northern Gaza.


Several Israeli military vehicles moved back and forth, a number of high-ranking Israeli military officials thronged the terminal point and a drone surveillance aircraft flew in circles above.

The military activity which seemed imminent happened overnight when four Palestinian fighters, allegedly laying mines along the border, were killed after being targeted by Israeli aircraft and IDF personnel.

Several weeks ago the Israeli Air Force carried out several bombing sorties on targets in Gaza in retaliation for a number of rockets fired at Israel.

IPS visited the site of one of the bombings – a dairy situated next to several family homes belonging to factory owners Mutasem Dalloul and his brother.

“This is the second time we have been targeted. The first time was during the Gaza war when one of our dairy factories was destroyed. Overall, we have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Dalloul told IPS

“We used to produce 300 kg of cheese daily in addition to yoghurt, low-fat milk and other dairy products. Twelve employees, with 120 dependents, have lost their livelihoods.”

The Israelis say the factory was producing arms. Critics say this was a deliberate attack on a major source of sustenance in the impoverished territory.

Aid groups and journalists who visited the scene shortly after the attack reported pieces of cheese, butter and yoghurt containers strewn over the ground.

“Why would I situate a weapons site right next to my family’s home?” asked Dalloul as he pointed out the extensive damage done to his home by the aerial attack.

“We have a blacksmith workshop further away but that was not targeted,” added Dalloul.

The timing of the rocket attacks on Israel, prior to the bombing raids, after months of quiet has raised questions about whether more militant extremist groups are trying to provoke a confrontation with Israel or even with Hamas.

Hamas is not currently interested in a flare-up on the borders and has vowed to control dissident groups that threaten its fragile ceasefire with Israel.

Last year clashes between an al-Qaeda linked militant group Jund Ansar Allah and Hamas police in Rafah in southern Gaza left over 20 people dead.

On Wednesday, a Gaza-based al-Qaeda linked extremist organisation Jaish Al Umma, which is affiliated with Salafist Islamic fundamentalism, boasted to Israel’s Ynet news site that is has more than 200 fighters in Gaza and thousands of supporters.

Abu Abdullah al-Ghazi, one of the movement’s leaders, told Ynet that his and other like-minded groups intended to challenge Hamas’ rule in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Abu Abdullah accuses Hamas of not being sufficiently pious, Fatah of being too secular and Hezbollah of trying to spread Shia Islam amongst Sunni Muslims.

Some of the members of the more militant groups have also accused Hamas of caving in to the Israelis by not continuing with resistance and have vowed to continue the struggle.

“This is probably the reason they carried out the remote-controlled bombing attack on the Red Cross convoy in early February,” a well informed IPS source who wished to remain anonymous stated.

“The attackers lay in wait for the convoy. Their aim was to embarrass the Hamas government without causing any serious damage or injuries to Red Cross employees,” he added.

“An alternative theory is that there might be a power struggle underway between Hamas interior minister Fathi Hammad, who controls Hamas’ military wing, the Ezzidine Al Qassem Brigades, and other members of the leadership who are more moderate,” the source told IPS.

Meanwhile, Hamas police officers and personnel continue to be the targets of shooting and bombing attacks.

In March a bomb was placed in the car of a police officer in Rafah in the south while another bomb was placed next to a police station in Sheikh Ridwan in Gaza city.

However, Hamas’ deputy foreign minister Ahmed Yousef dismisses claims of security chaos in Gaza and says the statement is an exaggeration and that his men have the situation firmly under control.

“This talk about chaos and unrest and al-Qaeda linked groups threatening to take over Gaza is out of proportion. We are talking about isolated individuals who are basically irrelevant,” Yousef told IPS during an interview in his Gaza office.

 
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