Saturday 12 January 2013

Palestinians Refugees Hope For Cease-fire in Syrian Camp

 
Ziad Haidar

Palestinian sources from the Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus said it may take up to a week before the ongoing negotiations between the Palestinian factions and the armed groups that occupy a large part of the camp lead to any results. Meanwhile, there were reports that Dr. Iyad Shihabi, a member of the Civil National Palestinian Authority, was kidnapped and that a Hamas official named Essam Khazaee was killed.

The statement of Muhammad Younis, the foreign-relations official in Fatah, came a day after the alliance of Palestinian factions in Damascus announced the need for "political escalation" in order to implement the camp agreement. The alliance called on Hamas — given the movement's relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood and its impact on the Syrian National Council and the National Coalition — not to spare any effort in this regard and asked Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to establish contact with countries that "have an impact on these groups."

Younis told As-Safir that the fundamental problem lies in the "absence of one party leading the armed groups in the camp," knowing that the Civil National Palestinian Authority and the factions are calling for the implementation of the agreement reached in their negotiations with the military council.

Palestinian sources announced more than once in the past two days that an agreement had been reached. According to the agreement, "The Syrian army won't target or storm the Yarmouk refugee camp, and the Free Syrian Army battalions will withdraw from the camp and remove the earth mounds on 30th and Loubieh Streets in the Yarmouk refugee camp, among others, and the siege on the Yarmouk refugee camp will be lifted" in order for the displaced to start returning to the camp the very next day.

But none of these clauses were implemented, and the "civil" attempt to enforce the agreement by moral force also ended in failure. Meanwhile, efforts were made last Monday [Jan. 7] ​​to gather a number of volunteers in front of the camp to prepare to enter it in spite of the circumstances. This attempt, in turn, was doomed to failure. Many civilians were killed by mortar shells that fell in the middle of the camp as fighting continued sporadically throughout the day and night.

During a press conference in Damascus yesterday [Jan. 9], representatives of the Palestinian factions close to the Syrian regime demanded the "demilitarization" of the Yarmouk refugee camp and called on the leaders of the PLO and Hamas to establish contact with Arab, regional and international countries so that refugees who fled the camp due to violence could return.

According to Younis, the official Syrian side is cooperating to facilitate the implementation of the agreement, but the other side is raising "unachievable demands," as he put it. These include the evacuation from the camp of any aspect of the Syrian state presence. Younis said the camp "is an administrative part of Damascus and the administrative and official bodies are indispensable there,” and added that the main objective is for "the camp to return to its residents and vice versa."

Meanwhile, activists posted on their Facebook pages that the head of the Hamas media office, Essam Khazaee, was killed in the camp under unknown circumstances. Khazaee is the second official in the movement to be announced dead within a few days in the ongoing Syrian conflict despite, the movement having announced that all of its officials had left Syria. The same sources pointed out that human rights activist Iyad Shihabi was kidnapped in the area controlled by the gunmen. Shihabi is a member of the Civil National Palestinian Authority, which is responsible for relief and negotiations activities in the camp.



This article was first published in Arabic on 10/1/2013. Read original article.

The English content was translated
by
Al-Monitor. All rights reserved.

Mossad agents in the Al-Qaeda unit that attacked the Yarmouk camp

2 January 2013
The battle that raged starting December 9 in the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp (south of Damascus) has revealed new alliances.
 
The strategic objective was to involve Palestinians in the war in Syria, mobilizing them on a sectarian basis (they are mostly Sunni) against the secular regime. But the refugees did not allow themselves to be manipulated, no more than in Lebanon in 2007, when the mercenaries of Fatah al-Islam tried to mobilize the Palestinians of Nahr el-Bared against Hezbollah.

Elements of Hamas loyal to Meshaal allowed fighters of the Al-Nousra Front (Levantine branch of Al-Qaeda) to enter the camp where they mainly clashed with men of the PFLP (nationalists and Marxists).

It now appears that the al-Qaeda fighters were not only made up of Muslim extremists, but also included Israeli Mossad agents. They had specific plans to corner the leaders of other Palestinian factions and eliminate them. Not finding them, they allowed the other members of Al-Qaida to systematically loot the empty apartments of these leaders.

After a week of heavy fighting, elements of al-Qaida, Mossad-included, retreated and the camp was declared a "neutral zone." Of the 180 000 inhabitants, about 120,000 had fled the camp at the request of the Syrian authorities and were relocated by them to Damascus. Most are now back home.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian
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