Hamas slam PA attacks on Palestinian MPs, women

Hamas leadership slammed the attacks launched by the security apparatuses of the Palestinian Authority (PA) on women and MPs, including Hassan Youssef, Fathi Kar’awi, along with the Hamas leader Sheikh Nazih Abu Oun, while participating in rallies in the West Bank in solidarity with the Palestinian hunger strikers.

The attacks, which coincide with an upsurge in Israeli assaults on Palestinian deputies, bode ill for the reconciliation ambiance, First Deputy Chairman of the Palestinian Legislative Council, Dr. Ahmed Bahar, said in a statement.

Bahar called on the PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas to assume his responsibility vis-à-vis the assaults and form a special committee to investigate the background of the attacks.

Such attacks targeting the Palestinian peaceful protestors, including women, bear witness to the seriousness of the security coordination and display a striking apathy regarding the prisoners’ cause, Dr. Sami Abu Zuhri, Hamas spokesperson, maintained in an exclusive statement to the PIC on Tuesday.

The attacks culminated in the assault launched by the PA security forces on the wife of prisoner Jamal Al-Tawil, her daughter Bushra, a journalist, and her sister Intissar. The incident is a reminder of the PA attack on prisoners’ wives, including the wife of the Palestinian leader Abbas al-Sayed, just a few days ago.

Six more youngsters affiliated with Hamas were also targeted and kidnapped. Muhamad Ata was brutally beaten on his head and rushed to hospital after he fainted.

MP Fathi Kar’awi was rounded up during a solidarity march in Tulkarem.

According to a PIC correspondent, “PA security forces attacked Kar’awi, smashed his eyeglasses, and beat his son, before battering other non-violent demonstrators after the Isha (night-time) prayer.”

The attacks were carried out as Hamas members and other non-violent protestors performed evening prayers in the solidarity tent set in Abdel Nasser square.

Hamas leader Sheikh Nazih Abu Oun, 53, along with other Hamas members, were rounded up by the PA forces while they gathered to welcome ex-detainee Ibrahim al-Akra’ in Nablus after 17 years in prison, a PIC news reporter documented.

Ex-detainee al-Akra’ has called the Palestinian leadership to take serious action and appeal to international courts so as to expose Israeli crimes against the prisoners.