Shock and Disgust in Gaza

(Gaza Strip) A cellphone video of a particularly brutal honor killing in the Gaza Strip shows the apparent participation of an entire neighborhood. Any rational human being should be disgusted by the barbarism and gripped by the sadness.

The 16-year-old girl is seen being dragged to the street and pummeled savagely and mercilessly by male relatives and Hamas members. No one in the crowd attempts to intervene.

The scenes of the girl lying on the ground as frenzied men trample her are unimaginable.

At one point, the girl tries to cover her head with her hands to avoid the kicking. She then tries to rise to her feet, only to be stabbed repeatedly by one of the men.

As she collapses, one of the attackers pulls down her skirt so that the rest of his friends will not see her underwear. The girl is required to maintain her "modesty" even as she is being preyed upon.

And just when you think the lynch is about to end, someone emerges from the crowd carrying a large white stone.

He throws the stone at the girl's back as she lays face down, motionless.

Seconds later, another man throws a large stone at the back of her head. The video ends with the girl laying in a pool of blood. [vidcaps here]

Scant news reports covered the bloody public murder. One Hamas security official stated that honor killings happen regularly even though Hamas is "against these killings because we don't want anyone to take the law into his own hands."

Eleven women have been killed this year in the Strip according to the Gaza-based Palestinian Center for Human Rights. Of course, that number excludes the many victims never reported and buried secretly.


[Update 09/30/07]

It's a hoax -- sorta. The killing actually occurred but not in Gaza, rather in Iraq in May 2007.

From lgf:

The Jerusalem Post has removed the article, and zombie received the following interesting note from the author:

Thanks, but it appears we were the victims of a hoax. the film was taken in Iraq, not Gaza. we have been misled deliberately...we have removed the story..apologies!

This was probably part of the ongoing Fatah-Hamas propaganda war, with the added benefit to Fatah of embarrassing the Jerusalem Post.

[ ... ]

UPDATE at 9/29/07 10:02:26 pm:

We've now received confirmation that this story was concocted by the "moderate" Fatah to discredit the "extreme" Hamas. Fatah is preying on the mainstream media's desire to promote them as "moderates."

The State Department and President Bush are living in a fantasyland if they think supporting Fatah will lead to peace; there is no difference between these two corrupt Islamist thugocracies.

Therefore, ignore the links to the story and keep in mind that the media are the frequently intentional and sometimes unintentional tools of the terrorists and their supporters.


[Update 10/01/07]

JPost adds clarification:

Both Fatah and Hamas are engaged in a campaign of disinformation aimed at discrediting each other. But the timing of the latest Fatah hoax was clearly intended to coincide with PA President Mahmoud Abbas's visit to New York.

Heh.