Killers are on the loose in the Palestinian territories-and they’re not just targeting Israeli enemies. Fears of ‘all-out chaos’ are growing. At first, the threats trickling in to the Palestinian intelligence headquarters in Gaza seemed like childish pranks. Operatives chuckled about a Hamas-run Web site featuring a caricature of their boss, intel chief Tareq Abu Rajab: the Islamists had digitally grafted an image of a dog’s head onto the Fatah loyalist’s body. But then intelligence agents eavesdropping on a Hamas radio frequency intercepted a transmission that seemed deadly serious. ‘On Friday,’ a voice crackled in Arabic, ‘the dog will die.’ Abu Rajab’s security detail kept the boss away from the office that Friday. But the next morning, May 20, the intel chief stepped into his private elevator and punched the button for the fourth floor. A moment after the doors clamped shut, at 10:10 a.m., a bomb blast ripped a hole in the elevator’s steel doors, spewing fire and a dense cloud of ash into the hallway. Choking on the stench of burning hair, Haitham Hamid, one of Abu Rajab’s bodyguards, crawled toward the elevator. He discovered the corpse of another bodyguard dangling from his ankles in the […]
Monday, June 19th, 2006
The Gangs of Gaza
Author: KEVIN PERAINO
Source: Newsweek
Publication Date: June 26, 2006 issue
Link: The Gangs of Gaza
Source: Newsweek
Publication Date: June 26, 2006 issue
Link: The Gangs of Gaza
Stephan: