Hamas Says It's Back In Control Of The Gaza Strip

[Purveyor]

By KARIN LAUB – 2 hours ago

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Bearded Hamas leaders on Friday delivered an envelope with five crisp $100 bills to a veiled woman whose house was damaged during Israel's invasion of Gaza, the first of promised relief payments by the militant group.

In another part of the territory, a bulldozer cleared rubble and filled in a bomb crater where a week before a top Hamas leader had been killed in an Israeli air strike.

Since a truce took hold this week, ending Israel's three-week onslaught, Gaza's Hamas rulers have declared victory and gone out of their way to show they are in control.

They have pledged $52 million of their own funds to help repair lives, the money divvied up by category. The veiled woman received compensation for her two-story home in the northern town of Beit Lahiya.

Hamas, believed to be funded by donations from the Muslim world and Iran, has promised $52 million in emergency relief. This would include $1,300 for a death in the family, $650 for an injury, $5,200 for a destroyed house and $2,600 for a damaged house, he said, adding that these are not yet compensation payments, which Hamas promises will follow.

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AP: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g18XlzWuFa8Vkzc3H48pKen8b-WQD95T44PG0

[Idealism]

1. Israel should put a Mission Accomplished banner up in the MFA office

Heckuva job guys

[DesertFlower]

2. how nice of them to give money

to their people instead of buying more weapons. :sarcasm:

[aquart]

3. Will they pay compensation for the "collaborators" they rounded up?

How many, exactly, of them have disappeared?