[IsraelTimes] Gazoo official blames impasse on rival Paleostinian Authority; one killed as 1,000 Paleostinians gather along border for night time riot, clashing with IDF soldiersGazoo’s Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", rulers said on Sunday that their indirect negotiations to reach a long-term ceasefire agreement with Israel have halted and vowed to step up the violent protests along the border.
Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri
...a senior spokesman for Hamas. Zuhri gained notoriety in 2006 when he dropped his money belt containing somewhere between 640,000 and 900,000 euros, which was confiscated by Paleostinian security and customs officials at a routine border crossing from Egypt to Gaza. The news brought competing Hamas and Fatah forces to the crossing checkpoint for an epic face-making and hollering contest...
blamed the impasse on the West Bank-based Paleostinian Authority, which has voiced its strong opposition to the Egypt-brokered talks.
Abu Zuhri said that in response, the Gazoo-based terrorist group was escalating its protests in new locations along Gazoo’s borders with Israel.
In the wake of the announcement, more than a thousand Gazooks gathered at the border for a rare night-time protest, burning tires and clashing with IDF troops. The Hamas-run Gazoo Health Ministry said one person was killed and 11 injured by IDF fire.
The ministry said Imad Ishtawi, 21, was shot in the head.
The IDF said it had spotted a cell about to launch fire balloons into Israel and targeted them with fire from an aircraft. The air force usually fires warning shots at the balloon cells.
On Sunday, nine fires broke out in southern Israel as a result of the arson balloons. On Friday and Saturday, thirteen fires were reported in the areas adjacent to the Gazoo Strip. In response to each attack, IDF aircraft fired at cells of Gazooks as they launched the devices towards Israel.
The weekend also saw thousands of Gazooks demonstrate at the border. On Friday, one Paleostinian was reported killed by the Hamas ministry and at least 312 were maimed as some 10,000 Paleostinians protested on the Gazoo Strip border, with some throwing bombs, rocks, and burning tires, as soldiers responded with tear gas and occasional live fire.
One Israeli soldier was lightly injured by shrapnel from a pipe bomb thrown at troops, the army said, adding that it spotted a number of infiltration attempts.
Hamas had been indirectly negotiating with Israel through Egyptian and UN mediators to pacify the tense border in exchange for easing restrictions on Gazoo. But the efforts floundered as differences compounded between Hamas and its West Bank rival Fatah, who opposed the deal.
Hamas and Fatah, the party lead by PA President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial..., have been deeply divided for more than a decade. Hamas seized control of Gazoo from the Fatah-dominated Paleostinian Authority in 2007 and several attempts at intra-Paleostinian reconciliation since then have failed.
The PA government was pressuring Hamas to reach a reconciliation deal that would return Fatah rule to Gazoo, and earlier this year began to scale back electricity payments and other financial support in an effort to force Hamas to cede ground in Gazoo.
Abbas demanded that Hamas hand over complete control of Gazoo to the PA, and had warned against any ceasefire deal that did not include the Ramallah government.
Hamas has stepped up violence in recent months in an attempt to get concessions from Israel and the PA.