Israel sent dozens of Fatah members who had fled clashes in the Gaza Strip to the West Bank on Monday. A total of 88 members of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas' party arrived in the city of Jericho in the West Bank. Their two-bus convoy was escorted by Israeli police and army vehicles across Israel to Jericho and were taken to a security compound controlled by Fatah-dominated force.
"(Israel) decided to take the humanitarian decision to transfer to Jericho 87 residents of the Shujaiya neighbourhood in Gaza because of the violence carried out by Hamas," Colonel Yoav Mordechai of the Israeli army said, according to AFP.
"We talked with them on the bus and we told them that Jericho and the West Bank are different from the Gaza Strip and that the Israeli army controls this region. They have to respect the law," he stated. An Israeli security source disclosed 16 fugitives who were hospitalised for injuries sustained in the fighting will stay in Israel until they recover. Another 13 people were being held by Israeli internal security services for questioning, the official added.
