A textbook example of BBC bias in this story from the British State broadcaster as they seek to legitimise Hamas, the criminal gang that ‘runs’ Gaza (into the ground):

The leader of a radical Islamist group involved in a shootout with Hamas in Gaza is one of at least 22 people killed in the raid, reports say.

Abdul-Latif Moussa died in an explosion, officials said, but it was not clear whether he blew himself up. On Friday Hamas, which controls Gaza, launched a bloody crackdown on the group, Jund Ansar Allah, after it declared an “Islamic emirate”.

Scores were injured in the attack, on a mosque in Rafah, near the Egypt border. Hamas also stormed Abdul-Latif Moussa’s house.

The fighting lasted seven hours and ended at about midnight on Friday.

“These declarations [of an Islamic emirate] are aimed towards incitement against the Gaza Strip” [said] Ismail Haniya, leader of Hamas in Gaza.

Followers of the group said Abdul Latif-Moussa blew himself up in a crowd of Hamas police, but Hamas has denied this.

Six Hamas fighters, including a senior commander, and one civilian died. The rest of those killed were from Jund Ansar Allah.

About 120 people were injured, with some in a critical condition, the BBC’s Rushdi Abu Alouf says.

The Hamas spokesman, Taher al-Nono, said: “We hold Abdul-Latif Moussa and his followers fully responsible for what happened because of his hasty declaration during Friday prayers of a so-called ‘Islamic Emirate’.”

The Jund Ansar Allah (Army of the Helpers of God) is thought to be linked to al-Qaeda.

Mr Nono said: “Anyone who belongs to this group has to immediately hand himself and his weapons over to the Palestinian police and security forces.”

Another Hamas official, Sami Abu Zuhri, branded the cleric’s speech “wrong thinking”.

Hamas fighters on Friday fired rocket-propelled grenades at Ibn-Taymiyah mosque, where at least 100 Jund Ansar Allah supporters were holed up.

The entire neighbourhood was sealed off as the shooting continued after dark – in what was one of the most violent incidents in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip since an Israeli offensive in December and January.

Abdul-Latif Moussa and his armed supporters had sworn to fight to the death rather than hand over authority of the mosque to Hamas.

During his own Friday sermon, the leader of Hamas in Gaza, Ismail Haniya, dismissed Mr Moussa’s comments.

Apparently, these people are fighting to prevent Gaza becoming an 'Islamic Emirate'

“These declarations [of an Islamic emirate] are aimed towards incitement against the Gaza Strip and an attempt at recruiting an international alliance against the Gaza Strip.

“And we warn those who are behind these Israeli Zionist declarations: the Gaza Strip only contains its people.”

Jund Ansar Allah gained some prominence two months ago when it staged a failed attack on horseback on a border crossing between Gaza and Israel.

The group is very critical of Hamas, which seized Gaza in 2007, accusing the Islamist group of not being Islamist enough.

Hamas has cracked down hard on al-Qaeda-inspired groups in the past, the BBC’s Middle East correspondent Katya Adler says.

Hamas is concerned they may attract more extremist members, and has forbidden anyone except what it describes as Hamas security personnel from carrying weapons in Gaza, our correspondent says.

You will notice how Hamas is positioned here by the BBC as a force for good, by labelling the upstarts to be a ‘radical’ Islamist group’ – thereby implying that Hamas are the wronged moderates, fighting to restore calm. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Do the BBC not think Hamas is a ‘radical Islamist group?

The ‘radicals’ in the story are in fact a rival, Al Qaeda-supporting  Salafist group, who we can’t see as having too dissimilar a position to the incumbent gangsters currently running the show.

So Jund Ansar Allah declared Gaza “an Islamic Emirate”?

Isn’t that what Hamas is doing, as it ‘cracks down’ on women’s dress and persecutes those Christians unfortunate enough to remain in Gaza with such atrocities as beating up and gunning down wedding parties for the heinous crime of playing music at their ceremony?

Isn’t that what Hamas is doing  every time it shows one of its Children’s’ TV programmes, where young kids are encouraged by Hamas placemen in cartoon character costumes to refer to Jews as the ‘children of apes and pigs?

Isn’t that what Hamas is doing every time it rains missiles indiscriminately into Southern Israeli cities?

In reality, this story seems to us to represent little more than than a rival spat between two criminal gangs, with the bigger one attempting to take out the upstart. But you’d never know that from the way the BBC dresses it up.

Your tax pounds (yes, the BBC Licence fee is a tax) at work.

[Main story: BBC News Online]

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