Hamas militiamen detained 32 Fatah supporters across Gaza, half of them after breaking up a wedding and beating guests with clubs and chairs, Fatah officials and witnesses said yesterday. Ten people were hurt.
After taking control of Gaza by force in June, Hamas had promised amnesty to Fatah loyalists and it was not immediately clear whether the arrests late on Friday and early yesterday signaled the start a crackdown on Fatah or were isolated incidents.
In the northern town of Beit Hanoun, 15 Fatah supporters were arrested, after Hamas security men broke up a wedding of Fatah loyalists on Friday.
The Hamas force policing Gaza said it stopped the celebration because guests shot in the air, disturbing the peace, and confirmed four arrests. Fatah activists denied anyone had fired in the air.
Wedding footage filmed by a cameraman from the local Ramattan news agency showed guests singing Fatah songs in praise of Abbas and his predecessor, the late Yasser Arafat.
The footage, broadcast on the West Bank-based Palestine TV, showed four jeeps carrying Hamas security men arriving at the scene, some shooting in the air and others wielding clubs. A scuffle ensued, and the Hamas men were seen beating guests with sticks and chairs.
After the incident, about 150 women and youngsters marched to the headquarters of the Hamas police in Beit Hanoun. The protesters and security men yelled at each other, pushing and shoving.
Medical personnel said that in all, 10 people were hurt in the confrontations.
DOUBLE-MURDER CASE: The officer told the dispatcher he would check the locations of the callers, but instead headed to a pizzeria, remaining there for about an hour A New Jersey officer has been charged with misconduct after prosecutors said he did not quickly respond to and properly investigate reports of a shooting that turned out to be a double murder, instead allegedly stopping at an ATM and pizzeria. Franklin Township Police Sergeant Kevin Bollaro was the on-duty officer on the evening of Aug. 1, when police received 911 calls reporting gunshots and screaming in Pittstown, about 96km from Manhattan in central New Jersey, Hunterdon County Prosecutor Renee Robeson’s office said. However, rather than responding immediately, prosecutors said GPS data and surveillance video showed Bollaro drove about 3km
Tens of thousands of people on Saturday took to the streets of Spain’s eastern city of Valencia to mark the first anniversary of floods that killed 229 people and to denounce the handling of the disaster. Demonstrators, many carrying photos of the victims, called on regional government head Carlos Mazon to resign over what they said was the slow response to one of Europe’s deadliest natural disasters in decades. “People are still really angry,” said Rosa Cerros, a 42-year-old government worker who took part with her husband and two young daughters. “Why weren’t people evacuated? Its incomprehensible,” she said. Mazon’s
‘MOTHER’ OF THAILAND: In her glamorous heyday in the 1960s, former Thai queen Sirikit mingled with US presidents and superstars such as Elvis Presley The year-long funeral ceremony of former Thai queen Sirikit started yesterday, with grieving royalists set to salute the procession bringing her body to lie in state at Bangkok’s Grand Palace. Members of the royal family are venerated in Thailand, treated by many as semi-divine figures, and lavished with glowing media coverage and gold-adorned portraits hanging in public spaces and private homes nationwide. Sirikit, the mother of Thai King Vajiralongkorn and widow of the nation’s longest-reigning monarch, died late on Friday at the age of 93. Black-and-white tributes to the royal matriarch are being beamed onto towering digital advertizing billboards, on
With much pomp and circumstance, Cairo is today to inaugurate the long-awaited Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), widely presented as the crowning jewel on authorities’ efforts to overhaul the country’s vital tourism industry. With a panoramic view of the Giza pyramids plateau, the museum houses thousands of artifacts spanning more than 5,000 years of Egyptian antiquity at a whopping cost of more than US$1 billion. More than two decades in the making, the ultra-modern museum anticipates 5 million visitors annually, with never-before-seen relics on display. In the run-up to the grand opening, Egyptian media and official statements have hailed the “historic moment,” describing the
RSS