Thousands of Palestinians flee to Egypt

[barb162]

Thousands of Palestinians flee to Egypt
Posted June 28, 2007 07:27:00

Up to 4,000 Palestinians have fled to Egypt after factional fighting killed more than 110 people in Gaza earlier this month, reports quoted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak as saying.

"We have effectively three or four thousand people ... who fled the violence and the assassinations in Gaza," the local media quoted Mr Mubarak as saying in reference to fighting between Fatah and Hamas Islamists.

"The group which we have here are in one camp. We're taking care of them and the army is in charge of them."

snip
http://abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/06/28/1964106.htm?section=world

[The Magistrate]

1. That Statement Of 'More Than 110' Killed In The Week, Ma'am

Is the first seemingly solid number to emerge from these events that has come to my notice. Are there sound reports yet on the number of people the Hamas gun-men have killed this month in Gaza?

[barb162]

2. I have seen several numbers from several different sources

but I hesitate to comment unless I see something from WAFA or a similar official source, such as the UN, hospitals, morgues, etc. WAFA stopped running stories 6/14, when things were already getting really chaotic, and on that date they ran an AI story, stating 130 people "in the past month."


LONDON, JUNE 14, 2007 (WAFA) - Amnesty International said the political violence in the Gaza Strip is escalating, reaching unprecedented levels in recent days, and is putting the civilian population more and more at risk.

It said in a press release, Amnesty said 130 Palestinians have been killed and several hundreds injured in the past month alone in clashes between the security forces and their proxy militias loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party or to Prime Minister Isma'il Haniyeh's Hamas party.

snip
http://www.wafa.ps/english/body.asp?id=10290

If I run across something that appears to be good data, I'll post to here.

[The Magistrate]

3. Thank You, Ma'am

Put bluntly, the lack of figures is one of the most troubling aspects of the situation: silence on that topic is generally a bad sign.

[barb162]

4. This helps though I think it understates the numbers killed and wounded

Red Cross says Gaza death toll at 116
Article from: Agence France-Presse From correspondents in Geneva

June 16, 2007 03:27am
HEAVY fighting in the Gaza Strip over the past week has claimed the lives of at least 116 people and injured more than 550, the International Committee of the Red Cross said today.

“Based on figures provided by hospitals and emergency services on 15 June, the ICRC estimates that over 550 people have been wounded and at least 116 killed in the fighting of the previous week,” the ICRC said.
snip

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,21915103-5005961,00.html

I read of many people getting killed in front of families or others, where one could easily infer that the family didn't take the body to a hospital to be counted.

[barb162]

5. The silence

is a very good point; you got me thinking about that. With the infrastructure disruption, the general high level of disorder, the overworked government and hospital workers who were still at their jobs, the ones who weren't at their jobs, the people terrified to even leave their homes, etc., I wonder if there will be an accurate count and if any side to the fighting wants an accurate count. I can understand why they wouldn't. I can't think of a reason Hamas would want to publicize an accurate but high body count. Reunification attempts would very possibly be harder with that kind of information.

[pelsar]

6. no info coming out of gaza....

its pretty much shut down....israeli new sources appear to have disappeard, which would not be a surprise given the Hamas attitude toward the other.

i did come across something rather interesting on a different thread

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=124x179038
ay tuned. meanwhile, Gaza activists who have been visiting the US remain stranded, and may for awhile at least, be unable to return to their homes.

makes me rather curious how many of those "activists" really want to "return to their homes".....given that they are probably in outlook "western"oriented and not fanatically religious. Reminds of me of Iran, first thing khommeni did was hang the left wing liberals which helped bring him to power.

btw can we call gaza liberated as hamas does, or is it now occupied as abbas, the president, refers to it?

[barb162]

7. I bet you can call it liberated or occupied and you'll still be right

I think I'll just write "Gaza" for now.

[breakaleg]

9. Israel occupied Gaza and the West Bank for 40 years and many here called it "disputed"

Now the situation in Gaza has been going on for about 5 minutes and you eagerly called them "occupied" right away. Funny.

[pelsar]

11. i always called it "occupied"....

mistaken identity....

so what do you call it...since we're on the subject.

[barb162]

12. Perhaps "Hamas-controlled Gaza" would be appropriate

to denote the current reality.

[LeftishBrit]

8. This is frightening

I hope that some solution can be reached before too many more people get killed; but I'm not that optimistic for the immediate future.

[pelsar]

10. i think the gazans..

are in real trouble now......not only will hamas follow the "iranian/taliban" model (after all that is the basis for their philosophy) we're probably not going to hear a whole lot of the goings ons.

hamas made their point: tossing people off buildings, executing people in front of their families....

fatah members actually stayed home and didnt join the fight (so much for commitment). Its quite the predicament...

if there is a lesson here its that having a single simplistic view of the occupation can make matters a lot worse for the people involved.
but then that lesson should have been learned when the taliban took over afganistan or when khomeni hung the left/liberals soon after he took power.


somehow i doubt the lesson will be learned.