NASTY FATAH HONCHO TURNS INTO SWISS CHEESE

Good print version of it:

THE Israelis sealed Gaza’s gates last Monday. Tension was crackling in the air, though after months of feuding, that was nothing new. On Fatah’s radio station, a commander named Samih al-Madhun boasted: “I swear I’ll kill all Hamas, civilian or not. I’ll kill them all!”

Coming from one of Abbas’s chief lieutenants, it was a declaration of war that Hamas was happy to accept. By Tuesday morning, Gaza’s on-off skirmishes had turned deadly serious.

Fatah fired rocket-propelled grenades at the home of Ismail Haniya, a Hamas leader who served as Palestinian prime minister in the “unity government”.

An hour later, Hamas landed mortar shells around the presidential compound of Abbas. This seems to have been the start of the Hamas offensive.

On Wednesday, its fighters consolidated control of the north and seized the south of Gaza. Then they tightened a vice around Gaza City and Fatah’s four command centres. A huge bomb, planted in a tunnel under the General Security building, shattered the morale of its defenders and started a battle that raged overnight.

By Thursday morning, fast-moving Hamas squads were deployed to attack all four Fatah posts. As they did so, 200 Hamas men surrounded the house where the loudmouthed al-Madhun was cornered.

Witnesses told how the mob shouted at him to get out of his house. He must have known he was doomed as he was dragged out, already wounded in the stomach from a single shot.

The mob was now all but hysterical. A Hamas television crew recorded what happened next. Al-Madhun begged for his life, crawling in the dirt, bleeding, surrounded. He was beaten and thrown to the ground. Then at least five gunmen riddled him with bullets.

That night, all Gaza saw al-Madhun’s killing on Al-Aqsa TV, which intersperses its war coverage with breaks for the call to prayer. >>

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article1942875.ece