Hamas bars Fatah rivals from leaving Gaza for congress

[oberliner]

GAZA CITY — The Hamas movement ruling the Gaza Strip said on Wednesday it will bar members of the rival Fatah party from leaving the territory to attend their first congress in 20 years.

The Islamist group "has decided not to allow members of Fatah in the Gaza Strip to go to the West Bank to participate in their sixth congress," Mahmud Zahar, a senior leader of Hamas in Gaza, said in a statement.

The travel ban would be lifted if Fatah freed all Hamas prisoners in the occupied West Bank.

"If they want their members to go to the congress, they must free all our prisoners," Zahar said.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gjwvQ3Cc7uGXaczKjTFc44TfUFHw

[LeftishBrit]

1. Ugh

This is the sort of thing I was just talking about in the other thread. Hamas/Fatah rivalries and power struggle being placed ahead of ordinary Palestinians' welfare.

Same as we see for so many groups and countries the world over.