Post by Paddy by Grace on Sept 12, 2008 23:40:48 GMT -7
www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5576
DEBKAfile’s Palestinian sources report that the leaders of the Iranian-backed Jihad Islami terrorist group in Gaza have warned they will go back to firing missiles at neighboring Israeli towns and villages unless the ruling Hamas stops persecuting them.
Our military sources report that Israeli forces securing the Gaza border went on missile alert Thursday, Sept 11, when Hamas heavies continued their crackdown.
Hamas gunmen are systematically bulldozing the Jihad bases, built over the ruins of the former Israeli Gush Katif villages, and flattening the sites. They have seized control of Jihad mosques in the southern part of the Gaza Strip and making arrests.
An Israeli military source estimates that Hamas is close to destroying Jihad’s entire military structure in the enclave.
Wednesday Hamas political chief Khaled Meshaal and the Jihad leader Abdullah Ramadan Shalah met in Damascus to try and smooth the quarrel down before it blows up into a major clash. They failed to agree and Hamas redoubled its assaults. Jihad cannot match Hamas’ military capabilities and has therefore resorted to its only weapon: a threat to break the two-month old Gaza ceasefire by reviving the Palestinian missile attacks on Israel at the risk of provoking an Israeli backlash.
So far,Hamas has not been deterred from its bid to smash the second major Palestinian force challenging its control of the Gaza Strip; the first, Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah, was ousted in a Hamas coup in 2005.
DEBKAfile’s Palestinian sources report that the leaders of the Iranian-backed Jihad Islami terrorist group in Gaza have warned they will go back to firing missiles at neighboring Israeli towns and villages unless the ruling Hamas stops persecuting them.
Our military sources report that Israeli forces securing the Gaza border went on missile alert Thursday, Sept 11, when Hamas heavies continued their crackdown.
Hamas gunmen are systematically bulldozing the Jihad bases, built over the ruins of the former Israeli Gush Katif villages, and flattening the sites. They have seized control of Jihad mosques in the southern part of the Gaza Strip and making arrests.
An Israeli military source estimates that Hamas is close to destroying Jihad’s entire military structure in the enclave.
Wednesday Hamas political chief Khaled Meshaal and the Jihad leader Abdullah Ramadan Shalah met in Damascus to try and smooth the quarrel down before it blows up into a major clash. They failed to agree and Hamas redoubled its assaults. Jihad cannot match Hamas’ military capabilities and has therefore resorted to its only weapon: a threat to break the two-month old Gaza ceasefire by reviving the Palestinian missile attacks on Israel at the risk of provoking an Israeli backlash.
So far,Hamas has not been deterred from its bid to smash the second major Palestinian force challenging its control of the Gaza Strip; the first, Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah, was ousted in a Hamas coup in 2005.