Forget Mayweather vs Pacquiao. There are other fights going around, but unlike the former, I don’t care who wins, just as long as they knock each other out.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) has been cracking down on Hamas supporters within its borders, Palestinian Media Watch reported on Thursday, and state media has been mum over the wave of arrests.
The crackdown began after Fatah’s defeat in student elections at Birzeit University earlier this month.
“Sources within the Hamas movement said that the Palestinian [Authority] security forces launched a massive wave of arrests among the ranks of the Islamic Bloc activists in several West Bank universities,” independent Palestinian daily Wattan said on Tuesday.
“The sources stated that the [PA] Preventive Security Force and the Intelligence Service took part in a wave [of arrests] that targeted the Islamic Bloc activists in Birzeit University and in Palestine Polytechnic University, as well as students from An-Najah University in Nablus and Al-Quds University in Abu Dis.”
The Islamic Jihad movement on Saturday accused the Palestinian Authority of arresting and harassing its members in the occupied West Bank.
Islamic Jihad said in a statement that PA security forces had arrested members in Jenin, Tulkarem, Ramallah, and Hebron governorates.The statement alleged that the PA had summoned students and activists affiliated to Islamic Jihad and threatened to imprison them if they partake in political or student activities.
The statement also accused PA security forces of targeting Palestinians formerly held in Israeli prisons.
A Salafist group based in the Gaza Strip has accused Hamas of torturing its supporters in prison and closely watching other supporters in cities and refugee camps across the coastal enclave.
A statement issued on Saturday by the group, which identified itself as the Salafist Trend, warned Hamas of consequences if the group’s supporters were not set free.
“Once again we ask the wise people of Gaza to stop the ongoing Hamas criminality and abusive detention of our brothers before it’s too late,” the statement said.
It added that the Salafist Trend “has details about what is going on inside the detention cells of the interior security service, including names of the criminal interrogators who torture and insult our people.”The statement went on to allege that security officers and undercover agents tasked with watching supporters and ransacking their homes are also known to the group by name.
“Those also won’t escape punishment, sooner or later.”