 BUREIJ REFUGEE CAMP, Gaza Strip - Edging closer to open conflict, the Hamas-led Palestinian government deployed 3,000 militants in its new security force in defiance of moderate President Mahmoud Abbas, who tried to veto its creation.
Brandishing rifles and grenade launchers, the militants-turned-security force marched through the streets of Gaza on Wednesday in black shirts and military style fatigues. Many wore black masks. There were no clashes with AbbasÂ’ Fatah loyalists, but the new forces showed a tendency to violence.
| There's my nomination for 'understatement of the year': they showed a tendency to violence, did they? How'd they show it: the usual face-making, eye-rolling and mustache-wiggling? |
In the southern city of Khan Younis, about 40 members pulled up to the Education Ministry, jumped from their jeeps and fired in the air to break up a peaceful protest of recent college graduates protesting an application fee for teaching jobs.
The gunmen moved into the building, where they bludgeoned protesters with clubs and rifles, demonstrators said. “We were protesting peacefully, and suddenly these gunmen came and assaulted us,” said a protester as he applied a bandage to a small gash on his head. “We don’t know who they are or why they came here.” He identified himself only as Khaled, saying he feared retribution.
| "We were just minding our own bidness!" |
Outside the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, members of the new force stood near members of a security branch that answers to Abbas, but there were no clashes.
| Pansies. C'mon already, my sno-caps are melting! |
The new Hamas force is headed by Jamal Abu Samhadana, a bomb-maker wanted by Israel who is suspected of masterminding a deadly attack on a US diplomatic convoy in 2003. Hamas officials said the new forceÂ’s aim was to bring order to Gaza, where marauding gangs of armed men routinely terrorize citizens.
| Oh that'll work well, a bomb-maker knows everything about bringing order. |
Tayeb Abdel Rahim, a presidential aide, urged Hamas to reverse the decision. “This force doesn’t serve security. On the contrary, it creates problems,” he said Wednesday.
| Not so that you can tell. |
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