Palestinian tensions focus on one family

The World
The World
The men at this military barracks arrived last night and they still seem dazed. This man says Hamas forces surrounded his neighborhood on Saturday and he says they had one goal: Hamas tried to arrest our family. The raid left at least 11 Palestinians dead, most from the Hillel family. This man says he and others ran towards the Israeli border where he says they were then treated like potential terrorists and strip searched and interrogated. Israeli TV shows the men taken to an Israeli prison and the treatment didn't improve in Israeli prison, and this man says he was denied medical treatment. Israel assumed that Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas would allow the men to go back to the West Bank, but on Sunday Abbas told Israel to send the men to Gaza. Abbas's reason was that the Hillel family was the last bastion of Fatah support in Gaza and he needed them to stay there, but privately it's speculated that Abbas was angry that the Hillel clan didn't fight for Fatah during last summer's Hamas takeover of Gaza. In the end, some 30-odd men were sent back to Gaza, but another 80 or so ended up in Jericho. The Deputy Mayor says no one consulted him about receiving the men. all of the men left their families behind. Another of the Gaza escapees is this professor who says the attack was a major win for Hamas. But it might be too soon to write off Fatah completely in Gaza, where they have about a one-third population support. One analyst says ideologically the movement is still in Gaza.
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