GAZA: Plenty of blame for both sides

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Hamas and Fatah each have abused Palestinians’ rights since facing off in a mini civil war in the Gaza Strip this summer.

So says Amnesty International, which today accused the rival Palestinian factions of what it called “flagrant disregard for the human rights of the civilian population already worn down by decades of Israeli occupation, military campaigns and blockades.”

In a 57-page report, the London-based watchdog said both Palestinian groups committed grave rights abuses during a week of fighting in Gaza in June that ended with Hamas in sole control of the impoverished coastal strip and its 1.4 million residents. The bloody street fighting created often-gruesome scenes, with reported instances of execution-style shootings and fighters tossed to their deaths from high-rise buildings. Palestinian human rights activists said nearly 150 people, including 36 civilians, died during the clashes.

But the violations didn’t end there, according to Amnesty, which is often critical of Israeli conduct. In Gaza, Hamas has imposed a parallel government and security apparatus that has arbitrarily jailed and tortured foes, the human rights group said, while the feeling among many Gazans that law and order had returned after Hamas’ takeover is now fading.

In the West Bank, the U.S.-backed government led by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, of Fatah, has routinely arrested and tortured Hamas supporters, and Fatah gunmen carry out revenge attacks against Hamas followers “with impunity,” Amnesty reported.

The rights group called on both sides to stop the abuses and urged the international community to make sure civilian residents of Gaza are not punished for the actions of the Hamas regime that now effectively governs there.

— Ken Ellingwood in Jerusalem