Hamas police set up checkpoints across Gaza on Saturday to prevent pilgrims from leaving for a holy Muslim ritual in Saudi Arabia, beating some who tried to dodge barriers, witnesses said.
The Islamic militants who rule Gaza were upset that the pilgrims coordinated their journey with Hamas’ rival, the Palestinian Authority. The authority, based in the West Bank, is run by Hamas’ bitter rival, the Fatah movement. The crackdown on the pilgrims highlights the depth of the bitterness between the two groups.
Egypt criticized Hamas’ actions as unbecoming of an Islamic movement.
The pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia is meant to be undertaken by Muslims at least once in a lifetime, and is considered a great event for believers.
Hamas seized control of Gaza from Fatah-allied forces last year, and animosity between the rivals has growing in recent months.
The Western-backed Palestinian Authority and the Hamas rulers of Gaza submitted separate lists of Gaza pilgrims to the Saudi authorities for visa approvals in the weeks leading to the pilgrimage, which will take place this month.
The rival Palestinian governments each claim to be legitimate, and their wrangle over who has the authority to send Gaza pilgrims to Mecca is a measure of sovereignty. So far Saudi Arabia has rebuffed the Hamas list. Different regions are given quotas for the number of pilgrims they can send to Saudi Arabia, and Gaza was allowed to dispatch about 3,000.
On Friday, the Palestinian Authority announced that pilgrims should report to the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt the following day.
The Gaza pilgrims were to cross into Egypt and travel from there to Mecca. But after the Palestinian Authority announcement, Hamas police set up 16 checkpoints on roads leading to the passage.
Witnesses said police sent back cars that appeared to carry pilgrims.
“They called us traitor pilgrims,” said a man who identified himself as a pilgrim to a Gaza television station.
Some pilgrims managed to dodge checkpoints by taking back roads to the Rafah crossing with Egypt. There, Hamas police beat up those who refused to leave, said pilgrims speaking on a call-in show on the pro-Fatah Palestine Television.
“They were beating up with sticks and their rifle butts,” said one man who identified himself as a pilgrim. “There was tear gas.
It looked like an action movie,” he said.
A woman called in, saying her mother, a pilgrim, was beaten on her hand and needed treatment.
Witnesses would not give their names, for fear of retribution by Hamas police.
Hamas police did not allow reporters into the area close to the border crossing.
Hamas spokesman Taher Nunu said nobody was beaten and said the press were not banned from the area.
Another Hamas official, Abdallah Abu Jarbou, said only pilgrims who had coordinated through the Hamas government would be allowed to exit the Gaza Strip.
“We are the legitimate government,” Abu Jarbou said.
VAGUE: The criteria of the amnesty remain unclear, but it would cover political violence from 1999 to today, and those convicted of murder or drug trafficking would not qualify Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodriguez on Friday announced an amnesty bill that could lead to the release of hundreds of prisoners, including opposition leaders, journalists and human rights activists detained for political reasons. The measure had long been sought by the US-backed opposition. It is the latest concession Rodriguez has made since taking the reins of the country on Jan. 3 after the brazen seizure of then-Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro. Rodriguez told a gathering of justices, magistrates, ministers, military brass and other government leaders that the ruling party-controlled Venezuelan National Assembly would take up the bill with urgency. Rodriguez also announced the shutdown
Civil society leaders and members of a left-wing coalition yesterday filed impeachment complaints against Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte, restarting a process sidelined by the Supreme Court last year. Both cases accuse Duterte of misusing public funds during her term as education secretary, while one revives allegations that she threatened to assassinate former ally Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The filings come on the same day that a committee in the House of Representatives was to begin hearings into impeachment complaints against Marcos, accused of corruption tied to a spiraling scandal over bogus flood control projects. Under the constitution, an impeachment by the
Exiled Tibetans began a unique global election yesterday for a government representing a homeland many have never seen, as part of a democratic exercise voters say carries great weight. From red-robed Buddhist monks in the snowy Himalayas, to political exiles in megacities across South Asia, to refugees in Australia, Europe and North America, voting takes place in 27 countries — but not China. “Elections ... show that the struggle for Tibet’s freedom and independence continues from generation to generation,” said candidate Gyaltsen Chokye, 33, who is based in the Indian hill-town of Dharamsala, headquarters of the government-in-exile, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA). It
A Virginia man having an affair with the family’s Brazilian au pair on Monday was found guilty of murdering his wife and another man that prosecutors say was lured to the house as a fall guy. Brendan Banfield, a former Internal Revenue Service law enforcement officer, told police he came across Joseph Ryan attacking his wife, Christine Banfield, with a knife on the morning of Feb. 24, 2023. He shot Ryan and then Juliana Magalhaes, the au pair, shot him, too, but officials argued in court that the story was too good to be true, telling jurors that Brendan Banfield set
RSS