The Gaza home of iconic Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has been ransacked by looters, who made off with personal belongings of the late president, witnesses told AFP on Saturday.
“I saw armed people entering inside, stealing Arafat’s things and burning one of the bedrooms,” said one witness who lives across the street but didn’t want his name used for fear of reprisals by the Islamists.
On Saturday, masked members of Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, stood guard on the roof of the house, not allowing anyone in, an AFP photographer witnessed.
Arafat died in a Paris hospital in 2004 and his home in Gaza has stood empty since then, protected by guards.
Gaza witnessed a looting spree yesterday, after Hamas fighters in the territory overran the mainstream security forces loyal to Arafat’s successor Mahmud Abbas.
