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Exclusive: Dahlan Family Visits Gaza

Despite the animosity between former Fatah official Mohammed Dahlan and the Hamas leadership, his family was granted permission to visit the Gaza Strip.
Fatah strongman and lawmaker Mohammed Dahlan (C) arrives at the Palestinian Authority headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah December 16, 2006. Hamas spokesman Ismail Rudwan accused Fatah strongman and lawmaker Mohammed Dahlan of being behind the attack on Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh's convoy.  REUTERS/Loay Abu Haykel (WEST BANK) - RTR1KH1X
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A senior Palestinian source told Al-Monitor that former Fatah leadership member Mohammed Dahlan’s wife and children visited Gaza a few weeks ago after receiving permission to do so from Hamas and obtaining an explicit promise from Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and senior members of the movement’s military wing that their safety would be ensured. Dahlan, formerly a senior member of Fatah, was despised by Hamas members of all levels. Considering the animosity that the organization has toward him and his family, the decision to allow this visit is significant. Dahlan himself was told he could  join the visit to Gaza, but he preferred to stay in Dubai so that the visit would keep a low profile and not put his family at risk.

Dahlan was head of the Preventive Security Force in Gaza, and then interior minister and national security adviser in the Abu Mazen government. On June 14, 2007, the day that Hamas launched its coup, the Preventive Security headquarters in Tel al-Hawa was the main target of their attacks. Hamas conquered the complex with relative ease, captured the members of the Preventive Security Force and took them on a humiliating ride through the streets of Gaza. The message that Hamas wanted to convey was obvious. Everyone who persecuted the organization since the founding of the Palestinian Authority in 1993 had been defeated, and now they were paying the cost. Even today, Hamas members still describe the torture they experienced in the cellars of the Tel al-Hawa complex, after Dahlan launched a wave of mass arrests targeting the movement’s senior members in Gaza.

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