Hamas brutally assaults Shi'ite worshippers in Gaza
Assault is part of a broader crackdown on Shi'ite organizations, including charities, that was sparked in part by Hamas' fear of growing Iranian influence in Gaza.
By Avi Issacharoff Tags: Hamas Gaza Iran threatArmed Hamas men broke into a gathering of some 30 Shi'ite worshippers in the Gaza Strip last Friday and brutally attacked them, Haaretz has learned.
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Ismail Haniyeh |
| Photo by: Reuters |
The assault was part of a broader crackdown on Shi'ite organizations, including charities, that has been sparked in part by Hamas' fear of growing Iranian influence in Gaza.
The worshippers had gathered in a house in the Sheikh Zayyad neighborhood, between Beit Lahia and Jabalya, to mark Arbaeen, the end of the 40-day mourning period for Imam Hussein, founder of Shia Islam, who was killed in 680 C.E.
Hamas militants arrested 14 of the men and beat up the rest. They continued beating the worshippers even after taking some to a hospital and others to a Hamas detention facility.
One Gazan, Rafik Hamad, told the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper that a senior security official called him at about 10 P.M. on Friday to tell him that his brother was under arrest at the Sheikh Zayyad police station. At the station, he found his brother suffering from fractures in his arms and legs and other serious injuries.
Hamad accused the Hamas government of persecuting Shi'ite believers.
"The police said my brother was a heretic and asked me to keep him at home and not let him out," he said.
The Hamas-run government is convinced that Iran is expanding its influence in Gaza by means of Islamic Jihad.
Gazan sources told Haaretz that Islamic Jihad now contains a group of converts to Shia Islam. The group is led by Iyad al-Hosni, also a convert, who was ousted from Islamic Jihad but recently reinstated, probably under Iranian pressure: Islamic Jihad's leadership visited Iran two months ago, and afterward, al-Hosni was appointed a senior officer in its military wing.
Some of the men arrested on Friday issued a statement on Sunday urging Iran to stop funding Hamas due to its persecution of Shi'ites.
Tehran has already reduced its support for Hamas, among other things because Hamas has refused to support embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Becoming Shi'ite is a growing trend in the Gaza Strip: Hundreds of Sunnis, both Islamic Jihad activists and ordinary people, are known to have converted.
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because it shows that Hamas is a bunch of thugs? Or is it good for both both reasons ... Hamas is being useful, but also exposed as brutes. Hamas should be congratulated on their inadvertent services to the Israeli state. A broken bones policy, but this time with real deniability. Hamas is better for Israel than was Rabin!
I thought Iran was funding Syria, Hezbollah, and Hamas... Is it the Saudi Wahabis?
Iran hates Israel less than it hates the Sunnis, esp the Saudis.
This is the problem with Sunni Islam. In Iraq, bahrain they are minority, but kill shitte. In Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan they are in majority, so killing of Shia is very common. All the terrorist organizatiions including Taliban, alqaida, Wahhabis are from Sunni and are anti shia
Actually, shias has two splits, first the political one and then with Abdallah ibn Saba who is founder of the tenets of shias the second religious split. Most researchers agree on this. So the founder of shiism is Abdallah ibn Saba. Wikipedia has more info on that.
you are aware that there are deviated branches coming out from the sunni and shia sects. lets not be ignorants...
When Shia Strings are attached to an Iranian initiative, then those connections better remain taut and completely responsive to the Regime's agenda or they'll be cut loose. A poor Sunni can now become a fast-tracked Shia convert able to pay his bills just by accepting cash incentives from the proud, overzealous Zoroastrian convert to Islam who is out and about trying to establish regional hegemony and beyond.
Aren't you, Lavi?
.. that Talmud was written by overzealous Zoroastrian priests? Come back home to "mother land" .. ;)
If they can't even get along and live in Peace with eachother, why would anyone think they can get along in Peace with Israel? If Hate is all you know then Hate is all you will ever have.
Unfortunately, even murder will not convice the Israeli far left ----- that Hamas and the Palestinians are not interested in peace. Let this be a lesson to you leftists. You could not spew the same kind of bile towards Hamas as you do Israel, and get away with it unharmed.
In spite of the fact that Israel wants peace and is impatiently waiting for an opportunity to evacuate the settlements, Hamas is forcing Israel to continue to expand the settlements! The rats!
Nice try. Interconversion within the same religion a news!
Delving into a history book and some political science 101 will probably drastically change your current opinion .
Mmmmmn. Whose side are we supposed to be on in this conflict? Whom to root for?
the religious group that has been persecuted and slaughtered for the past 800 years everywhere they go, *hint hint" it is the Shia.