We heard a heroic story in the midst of interviewing Fatah fighters after the Gaza Strip had fallen to Hamas. We met with Hatem Iki, who I mentioned in the previous post, in his hospital room at Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital. He could barely talk.
The 22-year-old presidential guardsman and 11 other soldiers had been sent on a mission from Abbas’ compound to the Preventative Security headquarters on the last day of the fighting to rescue some 30 officers who were holed up inside the besieged compound. Once inside the compound they called for the armoured car they had been promised but it never came and they wound up pinned down by Hamas militants.
They surrendered. A Hamas gunman shot one of the 12 soldiers in the leg and told the rest to run away. As they fled, they opened fire, Iki said, shooting them all in the legs as they tried to run away. A Hamas gunman came up and executed each wounded soldier, continued Iki. Iki was lucky, the execution bullet hit him in the side of the neck and he didn’t die. He lay semi-conscious on the street for an hour and a half bleeding. The bus driver who had driven the Hamas militants to the fight checked his pulse at one point and found he was alive. He started to help him.
“Leave him or we’ll shoot you,” a masked militant said. The driver obeyed and left Iki to bleed.
Some time later a man driving a donkey cart came by and also stopped to help the dying soldier. He found Iki was alive and went to load him onto the cart and take him to safety.
“Leave him or we’ll shoot you,” the militant reiterated.
“Fine shoot me,” the donkey cart driver said. “I’m taking him.”
They didn’t shoot. Iki was taken to the hospital and lived. He said only four of the original 12 who went on the mission with him survived.
56 responses so far ↓
1 Eamonn McDonagh // Jun 19, 2007 at 11:24 pm
What kind of ideological formation do the Hamas guys get that would allow them to do stuff like this?
I ask because, judging by this and by the previous post, there wasn’t really much heavy fighting which, what with loss of comrades etc, sometimes leads to this kind of thing.
2 Anonymous // Jun 20, 2007 at 12:48 am
Probably the same kind of ideological formation that leads US soldiers in Haditha to gun down dozens of women and children. Or the ideological foundation that leads Israeli soldiers to gun down children and US teenagers and women for human shields. None of which excuses these Hamas fighter’s actions, but let’s not pretend inhumane brutality is just limited to whoever Washington declares the bad guy of the week.
3 Anonymous // Jun 20, 2007 at 12:49 am
sorry, “and use teenagers and women for human shields”
4 Eamonn McDonagh // Jun 20, 2007 at 1:14 am
hi there anonymous, what’s in my comment to make you think I believe that atrocities are the unique preserve of Hamas?
5 Zvi // Jun 20, 2007 at 2:25 am
The Hamas attrocities are unusually vicious. Israelis in the PA and Americans in Iraq have not been known to take prisoners and throw them off buildings, or to murder disarmed prisoners, and Anonymous probably knows that.
A more honest answer: the causes of these attrocities are not particularly ideological. A number of factors are at work. 1. Don’t think of this as a war between Geneva Convention signatories. Think of it as gang warfare, a struggle for power and turf. 2. In many parts of Gaza society, clans are very important, and slights or violence against one clan may be avenged by committing violence against the offending clan. In the absence of a higher authority that can settle the conflict, such violence tends to grow over time. 3. In the 1990s, many senior Hamas figures were arrested and tortured by Fatah. 4. Add conspiracy theories about Israel and a dose of secular/Islamist conflict.
Finally, Palestinian society has for decades reserved its highest honors for people who murder civilians, provided that they are fighting for the right cause. Now Palestinians are reaping the results of such insanity.
6 henning // Jun 20, 2007 at 2:50 am
I ‘m questioning if this following remark is just plain unnecessary, but: I thought, since 2004 Abu Ghraib-scandal, that it was clear and true to everyone that the Americans in Iraq have murdered disarmed prisoners. And that wasn’t the last time they did.
That said, lets leave it there, and not continue comparing who would be “the worst badguy”.
Last note: Charles, truly great journalism your pulling of here, thanks!
7 Shual // Jun 20, 2007 at 4:27 am
Zvi, http://umkahlil.blogspot.com/2007/06/psychosocial-causes-of-palestinian.html
8 Anonymous // Jun 20, 2007 at 10:55 am
Eamonn, apologies if I was reading things into your comment which weren’t there.
9 Global Voices Online » Palestine: Heroic Battle Tale // Jun 20, 2007 at 1:25 pm
[…] and blogger Charles Levinson , who is based Jerusalem, narrates the story of a Fateh security guard who was shot by Hamas militants and rescued by a man in a donkey cart. […]
10 diana // Jun 20, 2007 at 1:48 pm
“The Hamas attrocities are unusually vicious.”
Really?
War is hell. There’s nothing about this one that’s particularly noteworthy, other than the fact that it’s taking place next to Israel. If that weren’t the casde, it would just be Another Crazy Part of the World Going to Hell in a Handbasket.
I guess you could also say, “War is a meal ticket.”
11 Steve M // Jun 20, 2007 at 2:12 pm
It’s a great story, Charles, almost Biblical. Is there a parable in there somewhere?
I can’t help thinking that if our leaders had more of the qualities of the donkey cart driver, we’d have a lot less gunmen.
12 Achillea // Jun 20, 2007 at 5:55 pm
Would that be this incident you’re referring to, Anonymouse? Do try to keep up with reality, it has a way of BigWheeling the anti-American talking points into the dirt.
13 This ain’t Hell, but you can see it from here » How the inmates began running the asylum // Jun 20, 2007 at 6:19 pm
[…] a story of Carter’s heroic Hamas from Conflict Botter; They surrendered. A Hamas gunman shot one of the 12 soldiers in the leg and told the rest to run […]
14 Anonymous // Jun 21, 2007 at 2:16 am
Oh wow, well now I’m convinced Achillea, a right-wing nutzo’s blog quoting from the types of folks who would still defend the My Lai perpetrators. Whoop-dee-do. Meanwhile, Iraqi kids get blown to smithereens every day by “smart bombs”. Of course there’s no bother, you probably still think we didn’t lose Vietnam we were just betrayed by pinko lefties and a million plus dead Vietnamese lives didn’t mean jack. And 20 years from now you’ll probably be saying the same thing about being “betrayed” in Iraq and ignoring a million plus dead Iraqis (though this time you won’t even bother to let the refugees into the country like we at least did with Vietnamese). Of course by then maybe you all will prepping to get your next war on to screw up yet another already messed up country even worse while wrapping yourself in (blood-stained) robes of righteousness.
15 plasmaoxyd // Jun 22, 2007 at 12:58 pm
A very affecting story. I’m looking up to people that make such a stand against violence in peace.
16 nuanoenesymnmut // Sep 2, 2008 at 9:47 pm
hey
its very reasonable article.
Good post.
realy good post
thx
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