PA forces beating Hamas protesters
Hamas members in the West Bank claimed Palestinian Authority security services used "barbaric and aggressive" force against them in an effort to stop a public rally in Hebron to mark the 31st anniversary of the terror group’s establishment.
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The footage released by the demonstrators appears to show the security forces striking at least one protester with a baton as he falls to the ground, bleeding from his head. There were also reports of stun grenades being thrown into the crowd.
The Palestinian Authority appeared to have eased the grip on the public events organized by Hamas in the West Bank, after allowing the organization to hold a rally in support of the terror group’s members who were involved in the two deadly attacks against Israelis, and who were killed in an IDF operation on Thursday.
However, PA security forces, including undercover police officers, were deployed in the area ahead of the Friday's demonstration at the Al-Hussain Mosque in Hebron—a city considered the terror group’s West Bank stronghold.
The forces searched the vehicles, confiscated pro-Hamas banners, and detained several demonstration organizers.
Meanwhile, a pro-Hamas rally was held in the city of Nablus, without visible intervention from the Palestinian security apparatus.
Adnan Damiri, spokesman for the Palestinian security forces in the West Bank, said the protesters who felt they’d been either unlawfully detained or beaten, could file a complaint with the police.
“All the Friday’s demonstrations in the West Bank were peaceful, with the exception of the Hamas rally in Hebron, which was aimed against the Palestinian Authority,” Damiri said.
Hamas later condemned what they called the “cruel behavior” of the Palestinian security forces toward those who came out to protest “the crimes of the Israeli occupation.”
“This brutal aggression proves the contempt for the blood of the martyrs and the distress of our people in the West Bank, which is caused by the IDF soldiers and settlers,” the terror group said in a statement.
Rival Palestinian movements Hamas and Fatah have been at odds for over a decade, often with brutal ramifications. In 2007, Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in a bloody internecine coup, effectively ousting Fatah from the coastal plain. Multiple efforts to reconcile the two movements have been largely unsuccessful, despite various power-sharing deals and intervention from Arab leaders.
On Saturday, a military-style parade was held in Gaza to marking the anniversary of Hamas’s establishment, ahead of a main rally Sunday in which thousands of local residents were expected to take to streets.
“The amount of people who participated in the West Bank rallies, as well as in the March of Return protests along the Gaza border, reflect the unity of the Palestinian people and their legal right to confront Israel,” said Gaza’s Hamas rulers in a statement. “The Palestinian people are sending Israel a message that their settlements and their soldiers will not be safe until the Palestinian territories are freed.”
But the animosity between the two movements is apparently overruled by their mutual opposition to Israel. On Thursday, after Israeli security forces killed terrorists Ashraf Na'alwa ,who carried out the shooting in the Barkan industrial zone, and Saleh Barghouti ,responsible for the Ofra terror attack, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement posted a message on their official Twitter account in praise of the two men.
"They are heroes, who drew the map of the homeland with their blood,” said the statement.
Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah called the two terrorists the "righteous shahids (martyrs)", and a rally in support of the terrorists was held at Ramallah’s Al-Manara Square, with many urging the Hamas military wing to avenge the deaths of the terrorists.