New Hamas navy to start work soon, spokesman says (Roundup)

Aug 11, 2007, 15:47 GMT

Gaza City/Ramallah - The Islamist Hamas movement on Saturday completed the formation of its new navy, saying it would start its work on the shores of the Gaza Strip soon, as rival Fatah reported 20 Palestinians were wounded in the northern Gaza Strip.

The new force and the Palestinian Authority marine service, loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas' of Fatah, would work together to bridge the gap left by Hamas' takeover of the Gaza Strip last month, a Hamas spokesman said.

The 150 troops are due to run the marine police headquarters in Gaza City, with their tasks including the fighting of drug smuggling through the sea and the securing the property of Palestinian fishermen, the spokesman added.

Earlier, Israeli military sources said Israeli gunboat crews were given instructions on how to deal with the Hamas force, which will operate without vessels.

In recent weeks, Hamas has been setting up new security services and reorganized existing departments in an attempt to impose better control on the territory seized from Fatah.

The Islamic movement established an intelligence body only a few weeks ago.

Members of the Hamas-run Executive Security Force, meanwhile, wounded at least 20 Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip overnight, officials from the rival Fatah movement of President Mahmoud Abbas said Saturday.

Fatah spokesman in the West Bank Fahmi al-Za'areer told reporters that Hamas militias attacked overnight dozens of people staging a spontaneous protest in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun.

Witnesses in the town told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that members of the Hamas executive force had on Friday night detained four senior Fatah leaders in raids on their homes.

'Things started up when Hamas forces stormed a wedding party held in the town because some people who were celebrating shot in the air from their rifles during the party,' the officials said.

Hamas security forces had instructed a few weeks ago that they were determined to end people bearing arms in the streets of Gaza, including opening fire in the air during wedding parties.

One of the witnesses speaking on condition of anonymity said that as soon as the four Fatah leaders were detained, dozens of women and young men took to the streets to protest their arrest.

The protesting women marched towards the Hamas force headquarters in the town, the witness said, adding 'Hamas attacked the protesters,' wounding 20 of them.

'The arrests of the four Fatah leaders in the town of Bei Hanoun Friday overnight and attacking the women's demonstration and wounding 20 of them can never be justified,' al-Za'areer said.

Meanwhile, Fatah sources said on Saturday that Hamas arrested 15 Fatah activists and leaders in southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis.

Security forces of the Islamic Hamas movement took control of the Gaza Strip on June 14 after defeating Abbas' Fatah forces.

In other developments Saturday, a Hamas commander in the West Bank, Mu'aied Bani Ouda, admitted on Palestinian state television to helping Israel to kill five militants.

The confessions were aired a day after supporters of the Islamic movement took to the streets in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip to protest against the alleged killing of Ouda by security services loyal to rival Fatah.

The main two Palestinian factions of Hamas and Fatah have been responsible for kidnappings on both sides of the territorial divide - the Fatah-run West Bank and the Gaza Strip, which fell in Hamas' hands after clashes in mid-June.

According to the tape, Ouda joined Hamas in 2001. Two years later, the Israeli intelligence recruited him as a spy after arresting him and implicating him in a sexual scandal.

Ouda added in the recorded programme that was dated Friday that he had guided the Israeli army to the hideaway of five Palestinian militant activists in the West Bank, enabling the soldiers to kill them.

But the Ouda family has insisted that Mu'aied made the confessions under torture he was submitted to since his capture by Palestinian security forces on July 22.

Ahead of the broadcast, the Hamas issued a statement condemning the contradictory reports President Mahmoud Abbas' forces had circulated on Ouda's situation.

The Hamas statement warned the security agencies against putting pressure on Ouda and forcing him to claim responsibility for acts he had not committed.