Gaza Isolation to Backfire

by IOL (reposted)

Sat, Jun 16, 2007 8:23AM

WASHINGTON — The US isolation of Gaza after Hamas's takeover of the impoverished strip, home to 1.5 million Palestinians, would have grave security and humanitarian consequences and backfire at the end of the day, American analysts, former and current US administration officials warned Saturday, June 16.

"We could see Gaza be the font of a much more militant radicalism than we have seen in the Palestinian community so far," Jon Alterman, director of the Middle East program at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) think tank, told Reuters.

"We have not seen Al-Qaeda in the Palestinian community so far but a Gaza that has imploded would create the medium where that could really grow."

Hamas seized control of Gaza on Thursday after touting rival Fatah in a week-long fighting that left up to 130 Palestinians killed.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday tasked independent MP and former finance minister Salam Fayyad to form an emergency government after sacking the unity government of prime minister Ismail Haniyeh, a Hamas leader.

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