Fatah Orders Members Back to Gaza
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
JERUSALEM — Almost 200 fighters who are loyal to President Abbas were ordered yesterday to return to Gaza after they fled over the border into Israel to escape from their Hamas rivals.
Dozens of the men returned after their midnight flight only to be arrested by Hamas security forces. In unprecedented scenes late on Saturday, Israel allowed in 182 men, all of them members of Fatah and mostly members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed group that has launched attacks on Israelis. It came after 11 people had been killed in the worst factional clashes between Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since the Islamist movement Hamas seized control of the territory in June last year.
Israeli commanders said they took a spur-of-the-moment decision to allow the Fatah men into Israel. Those suffering from gunshot wounds were taken for treatment at Israeli hospitals.
