 Gunmen from PalestineÂ’s Fatah movement on Wednesday announced the formation of a 2000-strong militia designed to counter new police forces loyal to the Islamist Hamas government.
| I've always found forming a militia to be the best solution to most problems, too... |
| Another milita? What was wrong with Force 17 and the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade? |
The creation of such forces has intensified fears among many Palestinians of violence between feuding factions that could destabilise a chaotic security set-up.
| Popcorn! Getcher popcorn right here! Peanuts! Popcorn! Crackerjacks! |
Eighty men drafted from disparate Fatah cells jumped over burning tyres and performed other drills in the Gaza Strip, where internal tensions have mounted since Israeli forces and settlers withdrew last year.
| Seasoned troops in the civilized world don't spend quite so much time jumping over burning tires... |
Hamas crushed Fatah, owing allegiance to Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, in January elections, only to be shunned by the West after taking power. The aid cut-off that followed has deepened poverty in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, spreading rancour that has erupted into street battles.
| The rioting, fist fights, face-making, moustache cursing, and shootouts haven't helped, either... |
Saeed Seyam, the interior minister and a senior Hamas official, last week mobilised 3000 new paramilitary police in what he called a move to crush lawlessness and oust Palestinian squatters from evacuated Jewish settlements. But some in Fatah suspected that the move was intended to consolidate Hamas's power and control over dwindling Palestinian resources.
"We formed the new force in a challenge to the force Hamas had formed and which we regard as illegal," Al-Muatasem Billah, a spokesman for the new Fatah militia, told Reuters on an impromptu military training ground in the Rafah refugee camp. "We do not wish to clash (with Hamas-led police), but if it happens, we will not stand handcuffed," he said as gunmen took aim and fired at targets in the distance. |