Hamas destroys al-Qaida group in violent Gaza battle

[Jan Klimkowski]

How are the ruling elites going to spin this?

It appears that those evil al-Qaida-loving Hamas terrorists have just taken out an "Al-Qaida" insurgency in Gaza.

Over in Berlusconi's kiddie villa, Tony Blair must be spluttering into his chianti: "But but... Hamas are the bad guys...."

Whilst Netanyahu, the neocons and the Fatah stooge, Abbas, consider some diabolical revenge to distract the masses....

Hamas destroys al-Qaida group in violent Gaza battle

Fighting between Islamist groups leaves 21 dead after brief declaration of 'Islamic emirate' by foreign-led followers of Bin Laden


* Peter Beaumont
* The Observer, Sunday 16 August 2009
* Article history

An al-Qaida inspired group which briefly proclaimed "the birth of an Islamic emirate" in the Gaza Strip included a Syrian national who was believed to be the head of its military wing, Hamas confirmed today after the group was overrun and its leader killed by police.

There have been repeated allegations from Israel and the Fatah-led Palestinian leadership in the West Bank that al-Qaida affiliates, including foreign militants, are operating in Gaza with the knowledge of Hamas, the Islamist group which controls the coastal strip.

The confirmation by a Hamas interior ministry spokesman that a Syrian national of Palestinian descent, named as Khaled Banat but also known as Abu-Abdullah al-Suri, was among those killed in fighting in the southern city of Rafah on the border with Egypt between police and Jund Ansar Allah ("Warriors of the Companions of God") will renew that controversy.

Jund Ansar Allah's leader, Sheikh Abdel-Latif Moussa, also died in the fighting, which began on Friday. He was apparently killed when gun battles began again after dawn today.

The group promoted an ideology following Osama bin Laden, posting his statements as well as terrorist training videos on its website, and had called for Gaza to be ruled by strict sharia law. It attempted to launch an attack on the Nahal Oz border crossing into Israel earlier this year, involving about 10 militants in trucks and on horseback, some wearing suicide vests.

The disclosure that a Syrian national was among the dead contradicts earlier claims by Ismail Haniya, who heads Gaza's Hamas government, that there were no non-Palestinian fighters in Gaza. Around 15 members of the group and six Hamas policemen were killed in the fighting around a mosque. Another 40 were arrested.

Jund Ansar Allah emerged in November 2008 when it released its first communique which sought to emulate al-Qaida, though no direct links have been proven. It is one of a number of jihadi groups to have appeared.

A Hamas spokesman accused the group of carrying out several recent attacks in the territory including bombings of a café, hairdressing salon and music shop.

Hamas sources said they were also behind the bombing of a wedding of members of the Dahlan family, a Fatah-affiliated clan, one of whose members, Mohammed Dahlan, was recently elected to the Fatah Central Committee. In addition, the group had threatened to burn down the Strip's internet cafes and called for people on the beaches to dress more modestly.

Although Hamas claimed that the group's leader was mentally unstable, Sheikh Moussa had managed to attract scores of young men, some of whom had styled themselves after jihadi fighters in Afghanistan and Iraq, wearing their hair and beards long and even affecting the same dress.

The group's website, which shows videos of the preparations for the attack on Israel, much of it focusing on men on horseback or loading horses with mines, makes clear that Jund Ansar Allah allied itself closely with the ideals of global jihad as opposed to Hamas, which is more closely focused on Palestinian nationalism.

The emphasis on horseback operations is believed to signify a desire to emulate the warfare of the period of the Islamic conquests. The attack on Israel was reportedly under the command of Abu-Abdullah al-Suri or "Abdullah the Syrian", the leader of the group's military wing.

Jund Ansar Allah is not the first hardline group allied to global jihad to emerge in the Gaza Strip. Neither is it the first time accusations have been levelled that al-Qaida allied groups have infiltrated the region.

In an interview last year with London-based newspaper al-Hayat, Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president who heads the rival Fatah movement, accused Hamas of helping al-Qaida to enter the area.

"I can say without doubt that al-Qaida is present in the Palestinian territories and that this presence, especially in Gaza, is facilitated by Hamas," he said. Hamas denied the claims.

What is not clear, however, is why Hamas took so long to crack down on the group after the Nahal Oz attack. The Hamas authorities appear to have cracked down on other jihadi groups as they have emerged, including the Army of God, allied to the large Dogmoush clan, which was implicated in the kidnapping of BBC journalist Alan Johnston in 2007.

In large part, the recent moves against Jund Ansar Allah appear to be have been motivated by Hamas's efforts to impose its authority, not least following the group's criticism of Hamas and for its flaunting of weapons despite a ban by Hamas on such demonstrations.

The conflict with the group is also underpinned by more complex ideological and religious considerations. Hamas – in theory at least – says that it believes in leading by example rather than compelling people to abide by sharia law, unlike the jihadis who believe that morality should be enforced.

Perhaps more important is the differing political outlook. The jihadi groups believe in establishing a global caliphate by violence while Hamas sees itself as a "resistance" organisation whose ambitions, by and large, are limited to the Palestinian struggle, a movement capable of sustained truces with Israel. Hamas has also condemned al-Qaida bombings in other countries.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu-Zuhari described the views presented by the group as "ideological deterioration" but insisted that despite their ideology they were acting alone. "This group has no connection to any outside organisation," he said. "No element or group has the authority to take the law into its own hands, and those who do not respect that will be dealt with by the security establishment."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/aug...s-al-qaida

[Jan Klimkowski]

This article has a stupid title. WMD were not used in Gaza.

However, the analysis of the contents of the white phosphorus and other chemical weapons (by any common sense interpretation) shells fired on Gaza by the Israeli military, if correct, is most concerning.

Weapons of Mass Destruction Used in Gaza


by Prof. Mario Barbieri and Prof Maurizio Barbieri and Prof Paola Manduca

Global Research, December 18, 2009
Brussels Tribunal - 2009-12-17

We have analyzed the content of 35 elements in 4 craters derived from:

2 bombing events in Gaza in 2006, one in Beit Hanoun, one in Jabalia camp, and 2 bombings in 2009, both in Tufah, the Gaza suburb.

We have also analyzed the powder remaining inside a shell of an exploded White Phosphorus bomb THS89D112-003 155MM M825E1 collected at Al Wafa in January 2009.

Craters

All craters were big and the sampling was conducted along one of the sides of the slope of the crater.


The locations of the craters are grossly indicated in the map below.

(Map at url)

In 2006, the samples were collected two weeks after the end of the attacks.

In 2009 samples from Crater 1 and 2 in Tufah were from bombings occurred on January 14, and the samples were collected on January 28.

The detailed result of analysis of metal quantification by ICP/MS are published in the web site of the Newweapons working group (1)

1-The data show that significant amounts of Tungsten (170-350 ppm and 20- 42 folds the average level (8,5 ppm) expected in the soil) and higher than normal level of Mercury (0,082-1,634 ppm and 8-16 folds of the maximum level found in a survey in 2003 of 170 location of the soil of Gaza, (0,01 ppm) ) were found in a large crater produced by a bomb exploded in Beit Hanoun in 2006.

The other 3 craters examined had expected level of normal soil for these metals.

Both Tungsten and Mercury are metals which have serious toxic and carcinogenic effects on humans at medium-high concentrations. Mercury is a classified carcinogenic agent which transfers from the skin to the foetus and cause fetotoxicity in animals.

Tungsten and tungsten alloys are genotoxic and suspected fetotoxic, and at lower concentrations tungsten causes respiratory and neurobehavioral pathologies.

Both elements are rare in nature and their finding in one of the craters induces to assume that were brought by the deflagration of the bomb, that has spread the metals in a radium of unknown dimension and might have produced contamination of water, soil and crops around and eventually humans.

2- Molybdenum, a rare element in the soil, is found at high concentrations in all the craters examined. The amounts found are 0,1 to 12 ppm and between 25 and 3000 folds than average levels (0,004 ppm) in the soil. Molybdenum is a known component of alloys with various metals (single and multiple metals) some of which are used as components of weapons.

Molybdenum is toxic for sperms and in high levels produces effects on reproduction and foetus.

3-Cadmium is an element present in low concentrations the soil of Gaza (0,093 ppm) , and it is known carcinogen. We found a high amount of Cadmium (up to 7,3 folds) in one of the craters from 2009 bomb in Tufah.

4- Cobalt was found in amounts up to 26,2 ppm (compared to 5,1 ppm average in the normal soil) and it was from 5.1 to 2 folds in the craters from both bombs exploded in Tufah in 2009. Cobalt can inhibit DNA repair and cause DNA breakage (mutagenic).

5-Nickel, Manganese, Copper and Zinc were found in one of the craters from bombing in 2009 at a 2 fold level than in soil. Some of the Nickel and Manganese compounds are carcinogenic.

6- Strontium is also found in amounts higher than average in earth crust in all craters, but its concentration varies in different locations and there are no data available for the soil in Gaza.

THS89D112-003 155MM M825E1, a White Phosphorus shell

These shells are built with alternating sectors of WP and aluminium, a metal potentially harmful, and are suspected to contain also other metals. Assuming that the effects of the heavy bombing of Gaza with the WP shells might not be only the delivery of Phosphorus, we have collected and tested for metal content the deposit of powder adhering to the inside of a shell, the one in the photo below, exploded on January 6 near the Al Wafa Hospital, and collected on January 28 in the place of its explosion

The powder was scraped with a plastic spoon and a piece of glass, from the sides and bottom of the shell.

According to Barbara Rome at "Defense News" magazine approximately 3500 phosphorus shells were fired over Gaza during the 2009 attacks.

Aluminium was also found in high amounts (218000-524000 ppb). Al excess is involved in degenerative diseases of the nervous system. Aluminium trespass placenta, if contamination occurs by skin exposure of the pregnant mother, and produces fetotoxicity.

The powder contained also relevant amounts of Molybdenum (125-200 folds of the content in soil), Tungsten (up to 41 folds of soil content) and of Mercury (up to 160 folds), showing that also these shells have an environmental load due to the fact they carry toxic metals and suggesting that their widespread use in explosions in open air must have sprayed the whole territory with these metals in addition to the WP.

Conclusions

The use of devices that carry and spread to unknown distances high amounts of toxic metals poses the question of the present contamination in the territory of the strip of Gaza. One report on the presence of metals in the soil of Gaza, with samples in 170 locations, published in 2005, could be a reference for comparison, if a more systematic collection of samples is undertaken, as it should.

The potentially widespread contamination of the soil, concurrent with the conditions of the displaced population that lives in this environment close to the ground and exposed to the possible contaminants, with the possibility of skin, respiratory and alimentary chronic assumption, urges to undertake further studies.

At a distance of years these should be directed to test of contamination of humans, crops and food animals.

In addition, there are some potential remediation strategies that could be applied to the population, which might reduce the damage from metal contamination. Studies for implementation of good practices should be undertaken as soon as confirm arrives of the assumption by individuals. This is especially important for young people in reproductive age and for children, due to the fact that chronic effects of metal contamination can affect reproductive performance (fertility and malformation are potential effects) and children neurological development.

Rapidly, a collection of data needs to be done to establish the contamination by metals of the population of Gaza.

This is by all means the first issue, but not the only one that need to be addressed by the scientific community and that should be of serious concern for the international organizations with the institutional task to promote and preserve world health. These should take a promoting role and should activate support for the needed research and for the medical professionals and scientists.

Other points that need further studies to understand the relevance of the contamination are the isotopic analysis of some of the compounds (Strontium), studies to define if these elements are in elemental, or aggregated forms (by size and by chemical composition), if the assumption of multiple metals at high concentrations has complementary pathogenic/genotoxic effects, a possibility suggested by experimental studies in animals.

This study was done by Prof. Mario Barbieri CNR, Rome

Prof. Maurizio Barbieri, University of Rome

Prof. Paola Manduca, University of Genova and newweapons

Notes

1-Data of the analysis by ICP/MS of soil from 4 craters from bombing by Israel on Gaza strip in 2006 and 2009, and from the powder from an exploded WP bomb, 2009 are published in full in the http://www.newweapons.org, under the title CRATERS GAZA 2006/09 and respectively WP BOMB GAZA 2009

2- B.H. Shomar_, G. Mu¨ ller, A. Yahya Geochemical features of topsoils in the Gaza Strip: Natural occurrence and anthropogenic inputs. Environmental Research 98 (2005) 372–382.

Summary of effects of metals

Molybdenum - male sperm toxicant

Copper - possible carcinogenic-classified as class 2 IARC

Tungsten- possible genotoxic and fetotoxic (via maternal blood and milk), carcinogenic in vitro, acting as solid pellet (ATSDR) and also in alloys with U, pathogenic (respiratory and behaviour- data from USA military labs)

Nickel - possible carcinogen in some forms, class 2 IARC

Zinc - complements As carcinogenicity and is fetotoxic

Cadmium - classified carcinogenic IARC

Mercury - classified carcinogenic IARC

Manganese - fetotoxic, possible carcinogenic-classified as class 2 IARC

Aluminium - fetotoxic, pathogen for nervous system and kidney

PRESS CONTACT: Fabio De Ponte
mobile: +39 347 9422957
email: fabio.deponte@gmail.com

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?c...&aid=16600