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Rashid Abu Shbak	Rashid Abu Shbak	Palestinian Authority	Israel-Palestine	Palestinian	At Large	Big Shot	20030511
		Director of the Preventive Security Apparatus in the Gaza Strip

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Hamas official: Fatah gave information to Israel and US

2007-06-23

A senior Hamas official said Friday evening that Fatah-affiliated security services gathered and passed on information about members in the Palestinian Authority to the US and Israel. Khalil al-Haya told Israel Radio that Fatah operatives were also involved in the assassination of Hamas members. In late May of this year Palestinians claimed that an IAF missile had struck al-Haya's home and that six of the eight people killed in the resulting blast were his family members. The IDF rejected the Palestinian claims and said that the strike was on a terror cell and had killed five cell members alongside three bystanders. One of those killed was Samah Faranwa, a known Hamas operative involved in the recent Kassam rocket fire on Sderot as well as the Independence Day kidnapping attempt. Meanwhile, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas authorized the government to review all private organizations, a step that might enable him to shut down dozens of Hamas-allied groups in the West Bank. Abbas' decree asked the interior minister to review the legal status of all non-governmental organizations, or NGOs. It also gave these groups a week to re-register. Also Friday, A top Fatah security commander resigned over his failure to prevent Hamas' takeover of Gaza, Palestinian officials said. Abbas accepted the resignation of Rashid Abu Shbak, who headed the Fatah-linked Internal Security organization in Gaza and the West Bank, officials in Abbas' office announced Friday. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. Long hated by members of Hamas for his role in crackdowns against the Islamic group, Abu Shbak became the target of criticism from his own men after Fatah's forces collapsed in Gaza last week, allowing Hamas to seize full control of the coastal territory.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Fatah commander resigns over Hamas victory

2007-06-23

A top Fatah security commander resigned on Friday over his failure to prevent Hamas’ takeover of Gaza, Palestinian officials said. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas accepted the resignation of Rashid Abu Shbak, who headed the Fatah-linked Internal Security organization in Gaza and the West Bank, officials in Abbas’ office announced on Friday. Long hated by members of Hamas for his role in crackdowns against the Islamic group, Abu Shbak became the target of criticism from his own men after Fatah’s forces collapsed in Gaza last week, allowing Hamas to seize full control of the coastal territory.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Hamas and Fatah agree to fourth Trucefire™

2007-05-17

Warring Palestinian factions agreed to a new ceasefire on Wednesday after 15 more Palestinians were killed in Gaza. Four days of fighting have renewed fears of a full-scale civil war in Gaza and left the fragile cabinet uniting President Mahmud Abbas’ Fatah party and the Hamas movement teetering just two months after it assumed office. Hamas ordered its fighters to halt their fire at 1700 GMT, while Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas ordered troops loyal to his Fatah movement to do the same immediately. This marks the fourth truce agreed upon by the rivals since fighting flared on Sunday. “Hamas has decided on a unilateral ceasefire to protect the blood of the Palestinians,” the chief of Hamas’s faction in parliament, Khalil al-Hayya told AFP. “Hamas is ready for dialogue to solve all problems.” In Ramallah, Abbas’s office said that, “the president has ordered all security services and their armed men to cease their fire immediately.” Earlier, Israel bombed a Hamas training camp in Gaza, killing two people, after a barrage of militant rockets fired from the territory, medics and witnesses said. As international calls for a halt to the violence mounted, Abbas and Hamas’ exiled political supremo Khaled Meshaal agreed to work to halt the bloodshed which is threatening to collapse the unity cabinet and peace efforts. Palestinian Information Minister Mustafa Barghuti said that Abbas and Meshaal agreed in a telephone call “on the necessity to put an end to the bloody events between Hamas and Fatah in Gaza”. Abbas was due to travel to Gaza on Thursday and Deputy Prime Minister Azzam al-Ahmad warned that he could declare a state of emergency in the territory. “If the president’s efforts to end these events do not succeed, he will quickly turn to the Palestine Liberation Organisation to take a series of measures, including declaring a state of emergency,” Ahmad said after a meeting of the PLO executive committee in Ramallah. Five Fatah men were killed on Wednesday in a brazen attack with grenades, anti-tank shells and mortar rounds by Hamas on the Gaza home of the pro-Fatah Palestinian security supremo, Rashid Abu Shbak, who escaped unscathed. Later in the day, Hamas fighters fired anti-tank shells at the building containing the apartment of the head of the pro-Fatah preventative security force in Gaza City, without causing injuries. Another eight people, including one civilian, were killed when Hamas fighters fired anti-tank shells on a Fatah vehicle carrying detainees of the movement.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Hamas kills five of its own in ambush

2007-05-16

Hamas gunmen killed five of their own combatants in an ambush on a Fatah vehicle that had been carrying Hamas detainees, Fatah officials said Wednesday. Also killed were two members of the Fatah-affiliated Preventive Security force that had been guarding the detained Hamas members, the officials said. The exact circumstances of the incident were not immediately clear. Hamas radio reported that a Hamas man was killed in another clash. Four days of intense Palestinian infighting in the Gaza Strip has killed 41 people. Early Wednesday morning, Hamas gunmen executed six Fatah bodyguards as the Gaza Strip slid further into chaos. The streets of central Gaza City echoed with the rattle of machine gun fire, and were empty except for gunmen in black ski masks. Terrified residents huddled in dark homes after electricity to some downtown neighborhoods was cut off by a downed power line. A nurse traveling in an ambulance was shot in the head and killed after being caught in the crossfire, hospital officials said. Fighting raged close to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's heavily guarded compound, which was also targeted by Hamas mortar fire overnight. Abbas was not present. Early Wednesday, Hamas gunmen fired mortars and pipe bombs at the home of Fatah security chief Rashid Abu Shbak, before storming inside, lining six Fatah bodyguards up against the wall and shooting them dead, Palestinian security and medical officials said. Hamas claimed that it men only stormed the home after the bodyguards fired at them. Abu Shbak and his family were not home at the time of the attack, but the house was guarded by at least a dozen of his guards. Abdel Hakim Awad, a Fatah spokesman, angrily accused Hamas's leadership of the attack on Abu Shbak's house. "All (Hamas) are killers from top to bottom, all are implicated," he said, charging that the Islamist group "wanted to turn Gaza into a new Somalia or Darfur." Late Tuesday night, PA Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh announced that a new cease-fire deal had been reached between the rival Fatah and Hamas factions. The truce, which began at 2 a.m., followed yet another day of bloody clashes between Fatah and Hamas militiamen in Gaza, in which least 20 Palestinians were killed and 70 were wounded. As per the terms of the agreement, all gunmen were ordered to leave the streets in the Gaza Strip, and all Palestinian abductees were to be released. Shortly after the cease-fire was announced, however, gunmen fired from a passing car at members of an Egyptian delegation who were in Gaza to mediate between the two sides. No one was wounded in the incident. Meanwhile, Palestinian leaders said Tuesday that Hamas was trying to divert attention from internecine fighting in the Gaza Strip by firing dozens of Kassam rockets at Israel. The group wants to drag Israel into the conflict to embarrass the Palestinian Authority and bring about its collapse, they added. Earlier, appeals by many Palestinians and Arab governments fell on deaf ears as gunmen continued to fight street battles in different parts of the Gaza Strip. In addition, most Palestinians ignored appeals from hospitals for blood donations. "The streets are completely deserted and people are afraid to walk out of their homes," said a local journalist. "This is a real war and people are really afraid." Hundreds of Fatah and PA policemen surrounded the Islamic University in Gaza City - a stronghold of Hamas - and threatened to storm the premises. Hamas warned that its men would turn the university complex into a "graveyard" for the attackers if they carried out their threat. Hamas militiamen fired several missiles at the headquarters of the PA General Intelligence Service in the northern Gaza Strip. The movement also threatened to destroy the offices of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in Gaza City. Tuesday's clashes began when Hamas gunmen killed eight PA security officers near the Karni border crossing. A ninth officer was shot and killed by IDF soldiers as he tried to escape toward the border with Israel. Fatah and PA officials denounced the attack as a massacre and vowed to avenge the killings. Fatah legislator Jamal Abu Rub said Hamas and the IDF were responsible. "The time has come for our people to realize that there is a huge conspiracy by mercenaries to destroy the Palestinian Authority," he said. "The security situation in the Gaza Strip is intolerable. We can't remain idle in the face of the atrocities committed by Hamas and Israel." Fatah's armed wing, the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, warned Hamas against targeting Abbas and other senior PA figures. Leaflets distributed by the group in Gaza said Hamas would pay a heavy price if it dared to target PA leaders. In response to the incident near the Karni border crossing, four Fatah legislators announced they were suspending their membership in the Palestinian Legislative Council, demanding an immediate halt to the infighting. They threatened to resign if the fighting continued. They also urged Palestinians to take to the streets to express their outrage at the ongoing violence.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Haniyeh calls on armed men to leave Gaza streets

2007-02-04

A Fatah affiliated National Security Forces officer was killed in the center of Gaza City Saturday evening, apparently at the hands of Hamas gunmen. The incident occured only a few hours after Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas urged gunmen to withdraw from Gaza City's streets, as clashes between Fatah and Hamas militants resumed Saturday across the Gaza Strip in defiance of a truce deal. Also Saturday, Fatah gunmen kidnapped two Hamas militants in the West Bank city of Nablus, one of them the head of the Shari'a faculty at the city's A-Najah University. Earlier Saturday, Interior Minister Saeed Seyam of Hamas said Saturday that senior offficials from rival Fatah and Hamas factions agreed to implement immediately a new cease-fire aimed at stopping the violence. Speaking after talks with Fatah security official Rashid Abu Shbak, Seyam said the two sides agreed to withdraw their gunmen from Gaza streets and rooftops, remove checkpoints, and halt media incitement. Haniyeh said that Gaza City's Islamic University, a Hamas stronghold, sustained $15 million in damage during attacks in recent days by security forces allied with his political rival, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. He added that the Hamas-led government would give a grant of $1 million to the university.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Gunfight erupts at near Palestinian parliament

2006-05-22

One person has been wounded in exchanges of gunfire between members of the Palestinian security forces and Hamas followers near the Gaza City branch of the Palestinian parliament, AFP says, quoting security sources. The Associated Press reported that a firefight erupted near the Palestinian parliament building in Gaza City on Monday and quoted witnesses as saying that the shooting came from an area where a new Hamas militia has been posted. Witnesses said the incident began when members of a Hamas militia came under fire and sought cover in an abandoned building. The militiamen exchanged fire with those shooting at them, the witnesses said. At one point, a Palestinian police car tried to approach, but was shot at. Ambulances raced to the scene. Okay, the ritual Cursing of the Mustaches has been performed. Now back to seething and kiling Zionists! Earlier on Monday, a Palestinian fighter was shot dead in clashes in the Gaza Strip despite pledges by Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas and the Hamas-led government to avoid escalation of violence. Mohammed Abu Taima, who belonged to al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a paramilitary faction linked to Abbas' Fatah party, suffered fatal sucking head wounds after rival Hamas fighers opened fire in the southern Gaza town of Abassan. A Fatah spokesman blamed Hamas for the attack, which also saw another Brigades fighter wounded. Hamas said on its website that its fighters wounded two people while foiling an attempt by Fatah to kidnap one of their officers. The head of the security services and one of the most powerful figures in Fatah, Rashid Abu Shbak, escaped unharmed on Sunday after a bomb was discovered outside his home in Gaza City. A day earlier, Palestinian intelligence services chief Tareq Abu Rajab was seriously wounded and his bodyguard killed in a blast in Gaza.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Assassination attempt against security chief thwarted

2006-05-22

Palestinian security forces thwarted on Sunday an attempted assassination that targeted the chief of Palestinian internal security colonel Rashid Abu Shbak. "Unidentified people planted a bomb yesterday near the Palestinian official's house in the region of Tal Al-Hawa south of Gaza," a security source who asked to be anonymous said. "Explosive experts who examined the area estimated the bomb weighed at 70 kilograms." the source added, indicating that it was defused. No Palestinian organization has claimed responsibility for an assassination attempt that targeted the chief of intelligence administration, Tariq Abu Rajab, headquarters yesterday. The blast wounded him and 15 people. Arab News adds... Hundreds of Fatah supporters and newly recruited members marched to the preventive security headquarters to show their solidarity with Abu Shbak and his apparatus. Officials from Fatah accused Hamas activists of planting the bomb. Abu Shbak has been a central figure in the power struggle since he was appointed by Abbas as head of three Palestinian security services. A previously unknown group that links itself to Al-Qaeda yesterday claimed responsibility for the failed attempt to kill Rajab on Saturday. In a statement posted on a website, the group said: “Your brothers in the Al-Qaeda in the Land of the Perpetually Aggrieved organization were capable of reaching the workplace of... Abu Rajab. The Mujahedeen were able to plant a bomb in the elevator.” The statement said Abu Rajab survived because the militants detonated the explosives before the elevator door had closed. The group also vowed to target Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Mohammed Dahlan, a former security chief.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Palestinian security says foiled bomb plot

2006-05-21

GAZA (Reuters) - Palestinian security forces said on Sunday they had foiled an attempt to kill a top commander to President Mahmoud Abbas, a day after another of his allies was wounded in a suspected assassination bid. A Palestinian security officer said a bomb weighing 70 kg (154 lbs) was found outside the Gaza Strip home of Rashid Abu Shbak, a member of Abbas's Fatah movement who is in charge of several branches of the Palestinian security services. That's a nice big firecracker The discovery comes amid surging tensions between Fatah, the long-dominant Palestinian faction, and Hamas, an Islamic militant movement that defeated Fatah in elections in January. In recent days, Hamas, which now runs the Palestinian government, has deployed its own 3,000-strong force on the streets of Gaza, setting up a showdown with the Palestinian police force, which largely remains loyal to Fatah. Low-level skirmishes between the rival parties have given rise to fears of a civil war among Palestinian groups, which include not only Hamas and Fatah, but breakaway factions of both movements and the staunchly militant group Islamic Jihad. Me, I'm afraid I'll run out of popcorn The discovery of the bomb followed an explosion in Gaza on Saturday that badly wounded Palestinian intelligence chief Tareq Abu Rajab, another Abbas ally. Abbas called the attack an attempted assassination. An aide to Rajab was killed. It was not clear who was responsible for the blast. One senior security official in the West Bank indicated that Hamas militants might be responsible, but Hamas denied involvement. al-Qaida has piped up and sez they dun it

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

New Hamas security chief vows to fight Israel

2006-04-22

A militant leader appointed to a senior security position in the Hamas-led Palestinian government said on Friday he would not abandon the fight against Israel which has long sought to kill him. Jamal Abu Samhadana, high on Israel's most wanted list as leader of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), was appointed on Thursday to supervise the Interior Ministry and set up a new police force from militants to crack down on anarchy and chaos. "Factions and security services should unite in one trench against the daily Israeli aggression against our people," Abu Samhadana told Reuters in an interview. Israeli officials said Abu Samhadana was still in the army's sights despite his senior appointment in the government led by the Islamist Hamas movement. The militant group, which is sworn to Israel's destruction, took office last month after winning a Palestinian parliamentary election in January which gave it control of the government. Israel, which has killed dozens of militants in air strikes, has tried unsuccessfully to kill Abu Samhadana several times. "We will continue to pursue him. He is a terrorist and the fact that he has received a senior role in the Palestinian Authority does not make him immune," said a senior Israeli official who declined to be identified. The 43-year-old leader of a faction that has carried out bomb and rocket attacks against Israel since a Palestinian uprising began in 2000 said his first order of business would be amalgamating militants in the security forces. His appointment was widely seen as an attempt by Hamas to strengthen its grip on the ministry which controls several security agencies, especially after Abbas recently appointed one of his loyalists, Rashid Abu Shbak, as its director-general.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Hamas reveals new Army security force

2006-04-20

The Hamas-led Palestinian government has announced the formation of a new security force comprised of members of Palestinian militant groups. The new Hamas Interior Minister Said Siyam said the force would help the police enforce law and order. Mr Siyam also put a leading militant, Jamal Abu Samhadana, in charge of Palestinian police and security forces. A BBC correspondent says the decision will not please Israel, which has tried to kill Mr Samhadana several times. If at first you don't succeed.... Israel will see the appointment as yet more proof that the new Hamas government has absolutely no intention of reining in militants committed to attacking Israel, says the BBC's Alan Johnston in Gaza. The moves appear to be in defiance of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' attempts to take a firmer grip on Palestinian security forces. He recently appointed an old ally, Rashid Abu Shbak, to head the security services. Mr Samhadana is the head of the Popular Resistance Committees, a group responsible for many attacks on Israel, including homemade rockets launched from Gaza in recent weeks. He is a former officer in the Palestinian security forces who was dismissed for refusing to report for duty. The new security force would be answerable only to Mr Siyam, an interior ministry spokesman said. It would be a volunteer force, and members would not be paid by the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority, he said. "This force is going to include the elite of our sons from the freedom fighters and the holy warriors and the best men we have," said the spokesman. "It's going to include members of all the resistance branches." Mr Siyam said: "We are going to beat with an iron fist all the people and the groups who are acting illegally." Palestinian police have been struggling to deal with chaos and lawlessness, particularly since Israeli forces were withdrawn from Gaza last year. As well as criminal activity and clan violence, police have often had to deal with challenges by unruly elements within the militant factions. Mr Siyam's move is an attempt to draw all the armed factions into the effort to maintain law and order, says our correspondent, by making them part of the system instead of having them challenge it from the outside.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Paleo 'Security' Personnel Cast 'Vote'

2006-01-22

BBC style scare quotes mine. GAZA CITY, 22 January 2006 — Thousands of Palestinian security forces started to vote yesterday morning in the legislative elections ahead of the scheduled date of Jan. 25. The forces will be free to protect the voting process on the day of the civilian voting. The early voting reflected the tense security situation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which have been plagued by election-related chaos and other lawlessness in recent months. Security forces will take up positions at polling stations during Wednesday’s election to ensure order. The special voting for some 59,000 security personnel, running through tomorrow, was meant to give the forces time to prepare for the deployment. And to make sure everyone else knows how to vote. “Today is the beginning of the democratic process which we are very proud of,” said Palestinian Preventive Security Chief Rashid Abu Shbak, who voted in Gaza’s Jabaliya refugee camp. “Everything is moving in a smooth and quiet way and we hope the next two days will occur in the same atmosphere and that Jan. 25 will be a national celebration for Palestinian democracy,” he said. You betcha. Turnout was heavy yesterday, with more than 40 percent of eligible voters casting ballots, officials said. There were no reports of violence. Security forces, some in civilian clothes and others wearing berets and olive-green uniforms, waited patiently to vote at polling stations throughout Gaza and the West Bank. In the West Bank city of Nablus, hundreds of officers lined up to vote. The stations were heavily guarded, and voters had to present identification and surrender their weapons to cast their ballots. So if the security forces were voting, who was providing security? To prevent fraud, forces guarding the stations were barred from voting areas, and voters marked their fingers with special ink to prevent double voting. Observers from local human rights groups monitored the voting. Outside the station, a small group of Hamas activists wearing the group’s trademark green ski masks baseball caps and bandannas greeted voters. There were no Fatah activists in sight. "Hi, howya doin', vote for me, that's Mahmoud, Hamas Party, or we'll kill you ... hi, howya doin', remember to vote or die ..." Hanna Nasser, head of the Palestinian election commission, said commanders were instructed to let their troops vote in peace. “We have made it clear that there should be no such actions,” he said, adding that safeguards are in place to ensure privacy in the polling booth. “You have the full freedom...to vote for whomever you want to vote,” he said. "Or we'll kill you."

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Israel-Palestine

Hamas gunmen shoot at homes of security chief, Fatah chief

2005-07-20

GAZA CITY - Hamas gunmen on Wednesday attacked the homes of the head of the Palestinian security services and the leader in Gaza of the governing Fatah faction, just hours after a deal to end factional fighting. This must have just been your average everyday fighting then At least seven people were injured in the exchanges of fire with bodyguards after the attacks on the home of preventive security chief Rashid Abu Shbak and the head of Fatah in Gaza, Abdallah Franji, security and Hamas sources said. While the security sources accused members of Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, of initiating the latest violence, Hamas said the shooting had been started by the security services. "Wasn't us, we're the peaceful armed wing" Spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said members of the preventive security services had opened fire on a car containing members of Hamas as they drove past Abu Shbak’s house and that one of Franji’s bodyguards also shot at a Hamas vehicle. I'm thinking shooting up Hamas sounds like a good preventive measure to me. Abu Zuhri said four members of Hamas were wounded in the exchanges, while hospital sources confirmed that three members of the security services had also been injured. We can always pray for septis Both attacks happened around dawn in the Tal al-Hawa neighbourhood, in southern Gaza City. Dawn in beautiful Gaza, the sun glinting off the wrecked cars, smoke wafting on the ocean breeze, the crackle of gunfire, the screams from the trauma center... Several hours earlier, Fatah and Hamas officials announced they had reached an agreement to end factional violence. Further talks between the factions were expected to take place later in the day in Gaza City to consolidate the truce, sources on both sides said. At least 22 people were wounded on Tuesday during clashes in the northern Gaza Strip between Hamas and members of either the security services or Fatah. Those clashes had been confined to the Jabaliya and Beit Lahiya areas, which lie to the east of Gaza City. There were no reports of fresh fighting in either area early Wednesday. Give it time Abu Zuhri said that despite the fresh clashes in Gaza City, all sides were keen to draw a line under the violence. “There is a desire among our movement and the leaders of the Palestinian Authority to put an end to this issue and to implement this “quiet’ on the ground,” he told AFP. "Then we can get back to killin' joooos" Hundreds of people demonstrated outside the Palestinian parliament in the West Bank town of Ramallah on Tuesday to call for national unity and an end to the security chaos in the occupied territories. The long-running rivalry between Fatah and Hamas has been stoked recently by the radical Islamist movement’s refusal to accept an offer to join a national unity government. The head of Hamas in its Gaza stronghold, Mahmud Zahar, said in a recent interview that there had been a permanent breakdown of trust between his organisation and the Palestinian Authority. The infighting has emphasised the collapse of the rule of law in the occupied territories which Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas and prime minister Ahmed Qorei have repeatedly pledged to tackle.

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