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Palestinian Arabs

Gaza dissolving in anarchy

?Palestinians? kidnap foreigners, hijack buildings, commandeer border crossing


By Stan Goodenough
December 30, 2005

Four-and-a-half months after Israel abandoned the Gaza Strip to the Palestinian Authority, the situation in the Arab-occupied stretch of land along the Mediterranean is rapidly spiraling out of control.

Recent weeks have seen armed gunmen from various political, tribal and family factions taking over election offices and police stations, kidnapping more than a dozen foreigners ? most recently this British aid worker Kate Burton and her parents this past Wednesday.

On Friday, yet another gang of gun-waving masked men sent European Union observers fleeing as they moved in on the border crossing between Gaza and Egypt.

Israel had only allowed that crossing to be opened on condition that the EU monitors keep an eye on what the PA border authorities would permit to enter and leave Gaza.

The monitors reportedly closed the border before running away, and reports from Rafiah suggested the armed Arabs were members of a family looking to settle a feud.

Some observers wondered, however, whether the takeover was not the first step on the slippery slope that could ultimately see Europe abandoning its post and leaving the frontier after all solely in ?Palestinian? hands.

The PA vowed from the start that they would not rest until they exercised full ?sovereignty? over the border crossing.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw was set to call on the PA leadership personally Friday afternoon to urge them to do all in their power to locate the kidnapped Burtons.

Television scenes reminiscent of those from Beirut?s civil war period showed vanloads of rifle-waving, masked men racing through Rafiah?s streets, while PA police threw up roadblocks and rummaged through taxis and car trunks apparently in search of the hostages.

Hamas and Fatah terrorist leaders appealed over radio and television for those holding the Burtons to release them. Groups holding signs demonstrated in support of Kate Burton and pleaded with her kidnappers to let her go.

No group has claimed responsibility for this abduction which differs from those that occurred before in that no demands have been made for the Burtons? release.

The meltdown of what law and order did exist as long as Israel administered Gaza is seen by many regional watchers as a harbinger of what will happen in the ?West Bank? when Israel deserts that territory too.

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