Qadoumi Strikes Again
Aug. 8, 2005 21:09 | Updated Aug. 9, 2005 18:09
UN aid workers released shortly after kidnapping
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
In the first operation of its kind in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian security forces on Monday freed two United Nations foreign aid workers shortly after they were kidnapped by Fatah militiamen in Khan Yunis.
The incident in Khan Yunis was the latest in a series of kidnappings involving foreigners in the Gaza Strip over the past few weeks.
A UN spokesman identified the two, employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), as Steven Karl, a Swiss national, and Christine Blunt, a Briton.
A special force consisting of masked members of the Preventative Security Force, the Military Intelligence and Civil Police raided a house in the center of Khan Yunis where the two hostages were being held. Eyewitnesses said two security officers and two kidnappers were injured during the operation. The two foreigners were not hurt.
Sources in Khan Yunis said the kidnappers belong to a Fatah militia affiliated with estranged PLO leader Farouk Kaddoumi, who lives in Tunisia.
The kidnapping was in response to the arrest of Suleiman al Farra, the director of Kaddoumi's office in Khan Yunis, the sources added, pointing out that the UN employees were being held in the house of Abdullah Barbakh, a top commander of Fatah's armed wing, the Aksa Martyrs Brigades.
Kaddoumi, one of the few PLO leaders who refused to move from Tunis to the Palestinian territories after the signing of the Oslo Accords, recently instructed his supporters in Khan Yunis to open an office and to start recruiting Fatah activists for a new militia to be called the People's Army.
Kaddoumi, who also serves as chairman of the ruling Fatah party's central committee, is planning to move his headquarters to the Gaza Strip after Israel evacuates the area.
Dismayed at Kaddoumi's decision to establish another Fatah- affiliated militia in the Gaza Strip, PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas ordered the Palestinian security forces to arrest Farra and some of his men. PA officials have condemned the decision to establish the new militia, warning that such a move would increase lawlessness and anarchy.
Farra was arrested by members of the Preventative Security Force on Sunday night as he was leaving his office. Following the arrest, scores of masked gunmen attacked PA security installations in Khan Yunis.
They also occupied the offices of the Palestinian Red Crescent in the city, beating employees and journalists who were inside the building. The attackers, who opened fire inside the offices and detonated explosive devices, warned that they would kidnap any foreigner who enters the city in protest against the arrest of Farra. Nahed al Khatib, a local radio correspondent, was moderately injured by
shrapnel.
Kaddoumi issued a strongly worded statement in which he condemned the arrest of Farra as a "criminal and barbaric act." He warned that his followers in the Gaza Strip would take "severe measures" against those responsible for the arrest unless Farra was released within 24 hours.
UN aid workers released shortly after kidnapping
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
In the first operation of its kind in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian security forces on Monday freed two United Nations foreign aid workers shortly after they were kidnapped by Fatah militiamen in Khan Yunis.
The incident in Khan Yunis was the latest in a series of kidnappings involving foreigners in the Gaza Strip over the past few weeks.
A UN spokesman identified the two, employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), as Steven Karl, a Swiss national, and Christine Blunt, a Briton.
A special force consisting of masked members of the Preventative Security Force, the Military Intelligence and Civil Police raided a house in the center of Khan Yunis where the two hostages were being held. Eyewitnesses said two security officers and two kidnappers were injured during the operation. The two foreigners were not hurt.
Sources in Khan Yunis said the kidnappers belong to a Fatah militia affiliated with estranged PLO leader Farouk Kaddoumi, who lives in Tunisia.
The kidnapping was in response to the arrest of Suleiman al Farra, the director of Kaddoumi's office in Khan Yunis, the sources added, pointing out that the UN employees were being held in the house of Abdullah Barbakh, a top commander of Fatah's armed wing, the Aksa Martyrs Brigades.
Kaddoumi, one of the few PLO leaders who refused to move from Tunis to the Palestinian territories after the signing of the Oslo Accords, recently instructed his supporters in Khan Yunis to open an office and to start recruiting Fatah activists for a new militia to be called the People's Army.
Kaddoumi, who also serves as chairman of the ruling Fatah party's central committee, is planning to move his headquarters to the Gaza Strip after Israel evacuates the area.
Dismayed at Kaddoumi's decision to establish another Fatah- affiliated militia in the Gaza Strip, PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas ordered the Palestinian security forces to arrest Farra and some of his men. PA officials have condemned the decision to establish the new militia, warning that such a move would increase lawlessness and anarchy.
Farra was arrested by members of the Preventative Security Force on Sunday night as he was leaving his office. Following the arrest, scores of masked gunmen attacked PA security installations in Khan Yunis.
They also occupied the offices of the Palestinian Red Crescent in the city, beating employees and journalists who were inside the building. The attackers, who opened fire inside the offices and detonated explosive devices, warned that they would kidnap any foreigner who enters the city in protest against the arrest of Farra. Nahed al Khatib, a local radio correspondent, was moderately injured by
shrapnel.
Kaddoumi issued a strongly worded statement in which he condemned the arrest of Farra as a "criminal and barbaric act." He warned that his followers in the Gaza Strip would take "severe measures" against those responsible for the arrest unless Farra was released within 24 hours.
posted by solitarioh2005 @ 5:32 PM
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