UPDATE: 4 were killed - three by the grenade, one from falling off a building. The PalArab self-death count for the year is now at 597.
* Today's kidnapping:
Unidentified gunmen on Friday morning abducted 'Umar Al-Ghool, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's advisor for national affairs from his home in Gaza City.Which means that the "siege" of Gaza is hardly as total as the MSM would have us believe.
Al-Ghool's son, who lives in Ramallah in the central West Bank, told Ma'an that his father was abducted from his home in Tal Al-Hawa in Gaza City less than a day after he arrived there from Ramallah.
He accused Hamas of kidnapping his father, demanding they release him.
* And,
The Hamas leadership has requested political asylum from the Qatari government for 450 Hamas political and military leaders in the Gaza Strip who were involved in the Hamas takeover of the coastal region, Israeli radio reported on Friday.UPDATE 2: The body of a murdered girl was found near Hebron. PalPress didn't publish her age; almost certainly another "honor killing." 598.
The voice of Israel said that among the leaders who requested asylum were Mahmoud Az-Zahhar, Said Siyam, Salah Al-Bardaweel, Musheer Al-Masri, Fawzi Barhoum and Sami Abu Zuhri.
Palestinian sources were quoted as saying that the head of Hamas politburo in exile, Khalid Mash'al, has sent a message to the Qatari government asking for asylum for a number of Hamas leaders.
He also suggested that Hamas will hand over the major security headquarters and institutions to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas through Qatari and Egyptian mediation in exchange for negotiating with Fatah. Mash'al stipulated that a number of Hamas leaders be guaranteed political asylum in Qatar.
Sources claimed that Qatar has not accepted Hamas' request.
Hamas spokesperson Sami Abu Zuhri denied the story. He told Ma'an, "This information is baseless, and we are endeavoring to bring back the Palestinian people to their homeland rather than sending them away."