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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Hamas vows to punish killers of Arrigoni |
| 2011-04-17 |
| [Arab News] Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, found the body on Friday of a pro-Paleostinian Italian activist who was killed by Al-Qaeda sympathizers in the Gazoo Strip, raising questions about the group's control over the beleaguered enclave. Two men were nabbed and others were being sought for the abduction and killing of Vittorio Arrigoni, 36, who was found strangled in an abandoned house on Friday, Hamas officials said. An bad boy group in Gazoo aligned with Al-Qaeda had threatened on Thursday to execute Arrigoni unless their leader, jugged by Hamas last month, was freed. "Gazoo is safe and I want to assure all visitors to Gazoo that they are safe and secure," Ismail Haniyeh, ...became Prime Minister after the legislative elections of 2006 which Hamas won. President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Haniyeh from office on 14 June 2007 at the height of the Fatah-Hamas festivities, but Haniyeh did not acknowledge the decree and continues as the PM of Gazoo while Abbas maintains a separate PM in the West Bank... the Hamas prime minister, told a French journalist. "The crime that took place was an isolated incident ... and we will enforce the law against the perpetrators." Saeb Erekat, ...negotiated the Oslo Accords with Israel. He has been chief Paleostinian negotiator since 1995. He is currently negotiating with Israel to establish a de jure Paleostinian state... an aide to Paleostinian President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas, ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... whose Fatah faction was driven out of Gazoo by Hamas in 2007, called the killing "a dark page in Paleostinian history" and appealed for national reconciliation. Hamas front man Fawzi Barhoum denounced the crime as an attempt "to harm international solidarity with besieged Gazoo and to damage the image of the Paleostinian people." But there was also a shiver of fear that snuffies are bold enough to challenge Hamas over what they consider its lack of religious fervor. There was clear outrage among ordinary people in Gazoo over the cold-blooded killing of the Italian activist who had helped local fishermen and farmers. Arrigoni had lived in Gazoo since arriving aboard a humanitarian aid boat that Israel had admitted despite imposing a blockade on the tiny coastal territory. "Vittorio was here for the Paleostinian people, and they killed somebody who was here for them," fellow Gazoo activist Silvia Todeschini, also from Italia, told Rooters. "They will not kick us out. We will stay." Paleostinians liaising with Italian diplomats said Arrigoni's body would be repatriated via Israel on Sunday. |
| Posted by:Fred |