The Sunday Times reports that Abbas loyalists are getting ready for an offensive against Hamas:
“Civil war is inevitable,” a senior Palestinian security official said last week. He predicted a bloody denouement to tensions heightened by a warning from Abbas that he will hold a referendum on proposals for separate Palestinian and Israeli states which the Hamas government refuses to accept.
“Time is running out for Hamas. We’ll choose the right time and place for the military showdown. But after that there will be no more of Hamas’s militias,” said the official as he sipped honey-laced mint tea in his sitting room while watching the antics of hooded militants on his television.
“I read our daily intelligence reports about Hamas and know very well that these people are planning to overthrow our president by force.”
Would such an action be the Palestinian “Altalena Moment” or just push Gaza over the edge into all-out civil war?
