On June 4, PA security forces attacked another Hamas safe house in
Kalkilya in a battle in which at least three people were killed, Middle East Newsline reported. The safe
house, located underneath a courtyard, was said to contain a Hamas cell led
by Mohammed Attiya, a senior member of the military wing in the West Bank.
"Our men will resist any attempt to arrest them by [PA Chairman Mahmoud]
Abbas's treacherous forces because they are working on behalf of the Zionist
enemy," Hamas military spokesman Abu Obeida said. "We, nor our people, trust
these forces."
In the June 4 shootout, which began with an attempt to arrest Islamist
fugitives, two Hamas fighters and an officer of the PA Preventive Security
Apparatus were killed. One of the fighters was said to have been wearing a
suicide explosive belt. PSA has been the lead agency in the PA crackdown on
the Hamas military infrastructure.
This marked the second gunfight between Hamas and the PA in Kalkilya. On
May 31, six people, three of them PA security officers, were killed in a
seven-hour siege of a Hamas safehouse in Kalkilya.
Two of the casualties were identified as Hamas commander in Kalkilya,
Mohammed Al Samman, and his deputy, Mohammed Yassin. Officials said several
members of the cell escaped and took refuge in a safe house controlled by
Attiya.
Officials said Dayton wants elite PA security forces to expand the
anti-Hamas operation to Tulkarm. Like Kalkilya, Tulkarm is located along the
1967 border with Israel and contains a large Hamas and Islamic Jihad
concentration.
Dayton has urged the PA to use newly-trained units from the Presidential
Guard and National Security Forces to raid Hamas strongholds. Over the last
year, about 1,500 PA and NSF officers underwent a four-month training course
outside Amman, Jordan.
Hamas has been ordered to resist any PA crackdown. Officials said PA
security forces were alerted to the possibility that Hamas would use
suicide bombers as well as women and children for attacks.
"We are getting stronger and we will show no mercy to those who harm our
leaders and our warriors," Abu Obeida said. "We call on our fighters to
treat the Abbas gangs as if they were the forces of the [Israeli]
occupation."
