IDF on top alert for Palestinian Day of Rage spillover

Mar 14, 2011 @ 23:15 18067 Views Israel, Palestinians, protest demonstrations

The Palestinians, though divided between Hamas-ruled Gaza and Fatah-ruled Ramallah, are holding protests in both places against both their governments Tuesday, March 15.

debkafile's military sources report that Israel's military and police are on the highest state of preparedness lest the demonstrators storm out of Palestinian towns on the West Bank and Gaza Strip and rampage against nearby Israeli communities and towns.

Our sources report intelligence that some of the organizers of the Palestinian Day of Range are planning to use the opportunity to cross into Israeli territory en masse and provoke Israeli forces into opening fire and so flash images to the world media of Israeli violence against Palestinian civilians taking part in the Arab Revolt.

The demonstration called to take place in the main square of Ramallah is provisionally expected to draw tens of thousands with the potential for igniting disturbances in the Palestinian towns and villages abutting Israeli locales.
As in Tunisia, Egypt and the early stages of the uprising in Libya, there is no information about who exactly is pulling the wires behind the calls for Palestinian demonstrations appearing on Internet channels. They are widely attributed to students at the universities and colleges of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian Authority in Ramallah and the Hamas government in Gaza City claim that they have initiated the protests. This claim is dismissed by our Palestinian sources as false since the rallies are primarily directed against both their regimes which have no control over these events.

The dominant slogans will condemn the rift between Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah and the fundamentalist Hamas, with calls for the Palestinians to reunite. Banners will also denounce corruption in the West Bank regime headed by Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and the Gazan government headed by Prime Minister Ismail Haniya.

Hamas staged its first pro-unity demonstration in Gaza City Monday to steal a march on Fatah.