Israel said yesterday it would begin sending dozens of fleeing Fatah fighters from Gaza to the West Bank, reversing a previous plan to return them to Gaza because they faced “immediate danger” in the Hamas-controlled strip.
On Sunday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas ordered nearly 200 of his fighters to return to Gaza from Israel, insisting that his forces must retain a presence in Gaza despite the danger of reprisals from territory’s Islamic rulers.
The first group of 32 were sent back to Gaza, but Hamas detained them upon arrival.
Israel’s Defense Ministry said in a statement that it halted the process as it received information that “they were being arrested by Hamas and that their lives were in immediate danger.”
The drama followed the bloodiest weekend of Hamas-Fatah fighting since the Hamas takeover of Gaza in June last year. In all, 11 people were killed and dozens wounded during a Hamas raid on a Fatah stronghold in Gaza City on Saturday.
In other news, Israeli security agents have been pressuring Gazans seeking medical treatment abroad to work as informers in violation of international law, an Israeli rights group said yesterday.
A report by Physicians for Human Rights-Israel said that Palestinian patients have “become an accessible and important target for the GSS [General Security Services] for the purposes of recruiting and gathering information.”
This method of operation was a result of the infrequency of direct contact between the Israeli authorities and Palestinian residents and to the vulnerability of the patient population, the report said.
The group said such tactics violate international law, citing the Fourth Geneva Convention, which explicitly prohibits coercing civilians into providing intelligence information.
The report includes 11 of some 30 sworn testimonies that describe security agents interrogating patients and appearing to make their entry from Gaza into Israel conditional on their recruitment as informers.
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Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique