Dahlan: Hamas fostering terror, damaging ties with Egypt

Hamas, once hopeful of building an alliance with Egypt now ruled by the Muslim Brotherhood, its ideological kin, and of ending the blockade on the Gaza Strip, is now under pressure to show it can bring Salafi militants under control.

The Palestinian Islamist movement, which has governed Gaza since 2007, denied Egyptian and Israeli charges that some of the gunmen who raided a Sinai police post and then tried to storm into Israel on Sunday came from its side of the border.

But with Cairo incensed at the death of 16 border personnel, Hamas said on Monday it was arresting radical Salafi Islamists in Gaza and shutting down the around 1,000 smuggling tunnels to the Egyptian Sinai.

The Gazan government's spokesman Taher Al-Nono said steps were being taken "to help uncover the perpetrators" in coordination with Egypt. He said "no Palestinian could take part in such an ugly crime".

'Dahlan's failing mental health treated in Israel' 10/04/2011 (updated) 11/04/2011 15:01

Former Fatah strongman Muhammad Dahlan's mental health is rapidly deteriorating, according to a 2005 assessment by a top Israeli security official made public Sunday by WikiLeaks.

In a message to Washington sent from the US embassy in Tel Aviv, then head of the Israeli Defense Ministry's political-security branch Amos Gilad described Dahlan as "a man whose emotional and mental health" was declining fast.

Gilad described one meeting as follows: "'Dahlan was there with his daughter-in-law. I told him 'You are sick,' and he started screaming and shouting at me. He shouted for hours," according to the document, one of a number of WikiLeaks' yet-to-be-released embassy cables obtained in advance by Israel's Haaretz daily.

"We called a doctor and suggested he go to a hospital. He refused and said he had to speak to thousands of Palestinians on September 17. He then collapsed on his bed. He looked ghostly white ... I said, 'If you leave this room you will either be martyred or end up paralyzed.'