Editorial Note: The following news reports are summaries from original sources. They may also include corrections of Arabic names and political terminology. Comments are in parentheses.

 
Isma'il Haniyya Hails the Egyptian Support and the Syrian Revolution

Haniyya hails Egyptian support, Syrian uprising

[ 25/02/2012 - 09:37 AM ]

CAIRO, (PIC)--

Ismail Haniyya, the Palestinian premier in Gaza, has called on the Egyptian people, Arab and Islamic armies to prepare for the final showdown with the Israeli occupation.

Haniyya, speaking after the Friday congregation in the Egyptian Al-Azhar mosque, said many Egyptian martyrs have sacrificed their lives for the sake of Palestine and Cairo should remain the leader of the struggle to liberate the Aqsa mosque and Jerusalem.

He said that Palestinians in Jerusalem were defending with their “bare chests” the Aqsa mosque in occupied Jerusalem, waiting for the moment when Muslims unite and liberate the holy site.

The premier affirmed that the Palestinian people despite the murders and suffering are adamant not to recognize Israel, affirming that there is no future for the Israeli occupiers on the land of Palestine.

Haniyya hailed the Syrian people’s demands for freedom, democracy, and reform.

Egypt to supply Gaza with power

[ 25/02/2012 - 07:20 AM ]

CAIRO, (PIC)--

The joint committee formed by Egypt and Gaza to solve the coastal enclave’s power crisis has concluded evaluating the current situation in Gaza and means of resolving its power shortage.

Committee sources told the PIC in Cairo on Friday that the committee members agreed on supplying Gaza with Egyptian power and boosting Sheikh Zuwaid’s power generation station in order to supply Gaza with additional power.

The committee approved linking Gaza to the regional power grid and rehabilitating the Gaza transformer station.

Egyptian minister of electricity Hassan Younis had recently announced increasing the power supplied to Gaza to 22 Megawatt.

Hamas ditches Assad, backs Syrian revolt

Ma'an, Reuters, 25/02/2012, 15:07  

Leaders of Hamas turned publicly against their long-time ally President Bashar Al-Assad of Syria on Friday, endorsing the revolt aimed at overthrowing his dynastic rule.

The policy shift deprives Assad of one of his few remaining Sunni Muslim supporters in the Arab world and deepens his international isolation. It was announced in Hamas speeches at Friday prayers in Cairo and a rally in the Gaza Strip.

The public abandonment of Assad casts immediate questions over Hamas's future ties with Iran, which has stuck by its ally Assad.

"I salute all the nations of the Arab Spring and I salute the heroic people of Syria who are striving for freedom, democracy and reform," Hamas leader Ismail Haniyah, visiting Egypt from the Gaza Strip, told thousands of Friday worshipers at Cairo's Al-Azhar mosque.

"We are marching towards Syria, with millions of martyrs," chanted worshipers at Al-Azhar, home to one of the Sunni world's highest seats of learning.

"The Syrian revolution is an Arab revolution."

Hamas makes its choice

"This is considered a big step in the direction of cutting ties with Syria," said Hany al-Masri, a Palestinian political commentator. Damascus might now opt to formally expel Hamas's exile headquarters from Syria, he said.

Banned by deposed Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak, the Muslim Brotherhood has moved to the center of public life. It is the ideological parent of Hamas, which was founded 25 years ago among the Palestinians.

In Gaza, senior Hamas member Salah al-Bardaweel addressed thousands of supporters at a rally in Khan Younis refugee camp, sending "a message to the peoples who have not been liberated yet, those free peoples who are still bleeding every day."

"The hearts of the Palestinian people bleed with every drop of bloodshed in Syria," Bardaweel said. "No political considerations will make us turn a blind eye to what is happening on the soil of Syria."

The divorce between Hamas and Damascus had been coming for months. The Palestinian group had angered Assad last year when it refused a request to hold public rallies in Palestinian refugee camps in Syria in support of his government.

Hamas's exile political leader, Khalid Mesha'al, and his associates quietly quit their headquarters in Damascus and have stayed away from Syria for months now, although Hamas tried to deny their absence had anything to do with the revolt.

Haniyah visited Iran earlier this month on a mission to shore up ties with the power that has provided Hamas with money and weapons to fight Israel. It is not clear what the outcome of his visit has been, though the tone of the latest Hamas comments is hardly compatible with continued warm relations with Tehran.

Rallies in favor of Syria's Sunni majority have been rare in the Gaza Strip but on Friday it seemed the Islamist rulers of the territory had decided to break the silence.

"Nations do not get defeated. They do not retreat and they do not get broken. We are on your side and on the side of all free peoples," said Bardaweel.

"God is Greater" (than the dictator), the crowd chanted. "Victory to the people of Syria."