Last update - 00:00 01/02/2007
Fight for a 'quasi-state'
By Avi Issacharoff
The cease-fire between Hamas and Fatah in the Gaza Strip went into effect at around 5 A.M. Tuesday, allowing the residents of the Tal al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City to breathe freely. A few hours later, a Hamas man was shot to death by Fatah gunmen, but the exchanges of fire had stopped. The neighborhood's residents had been under attack for more than three straight days.
The fierce battles in the Strip had centered around the main headquarters of the Fatah-affiliated Preventive Security Service, located in the heart of Tal al-Hawa, where quite a few families - middle class and up, by Gaza standards - live. Most of these families moved in the last few years from crowded neighborhoods and refugee camps to the neighborhood's new multistory buildings, which were built at the beginning of the decade. The new residents also get a breathtaking view of the Gaza coast.
Since Friday morning, though, the residents of these multistory buildings were forced to look out their windows at a different sight altogether: dozens of gunmen running around the streets, carrying Kalashnikov rifles and RPGs, firing at militants from the rival organization. The Preventive Security Service headquarters came under heavy Hamas fire, while members of the security service fired at buildings that the organization had taken over. The windows of the houses near the headquarters shattered from the force of the rocket and mortar-shell blasts, frightening the residents. In one instance, Hamas operatives told residents of an entire building to evacuate the area for their own safety - as well as to make it easier for Hamas to attack the Fatah men.
"The situation is tough," Tal al-Hawa resident Umm Ibrahim, a high-school teacher in her 40s, told Haaretz in a telephone interview on Monday. "They're all firing at each other here - do you hear the blasts?" In the background, the sounds of missile explosions could be heard almost every 30 seconds. "I haven't gone to work in the last few days. I stay home with my two daughters, who also decided not to go to the office where they work." Her other children are married and no longer live at home.
"I'm worried that the gunfire will come into the house, and I don't go close to the windows," Umm Ibrahim continued. "Just yesterday a shell landed on one of the apartments while two boys who were finishing high school this year were studying there. They were killed on the spot."
Throughout the day, Umm Ibrahim and her daughters had been watching television, but she said the electricity went out half an hour before her conversation with Haaretz, making that activity impossible. They had also been listening to the local radio stations, such as Al-Hurriya and Al-Shabab, which broadcast the news, including urgent breaking reports. The family is not short of food, since the mother managed to get to the store on Friday.
"There were blasts last night, too," said Umm Ibrahim. "My sister-in-law's mother died and I can't even go over to comfort her. But, God willing, there will be a cease-fire soon. We have never had a civil war and I hope we won't reach that point now either."
'Israel is responsible'
The reality in Gaza at the beginning of the week did not, however, accord with Umm Ibrahim's view that the infighting has yet to reach the dimensions of civil war. Roadblocks were set up on every corner, including along the main streets of Gaza, like Omar al-Mukhtar, Al-Jala and Al-Talatini Streets. Militants stopped passing cars to check for occupants active in their rival organization. If a "wanted man" was found in a vehicle, he was kidnapped immediately. Snipers and militants armed with rockets took positions on top of tall buildings, like in Tal al-Hawa. Fatah operatives broke into a mosque to which a few Hamas men had fled, and fired in all directions, while in Jabalya, Hamas forces tried to surround the homes of key operatives in the Fatah-linked Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades in order to kill them. The cease-fire agreement that was reached on Saturday did not last more than a few minutes. The arguments in the media over how to define the battles sounded almost disconnected from reality in light of the war that had already begun.
"Israel is the one responsible for our situation," said Hadija, Umm Ibrahim's daughter. "You destroyed the Palestinian Authority, the organizations, and strengthened Hamas. Why do you think people voted for Hamas? They saw that there is no Palestinian Authority in practice. Now you're satisfied by the situation."
Like her mother, Hadija has not gone to work in the past few days. "The manager is a bit angry, but I'd rather lose a job than my life," she said. "In the meantime, we're sitting at home. There are hours of calm, but it's impossible to know when the gunfire will begin again." As Hadija spoke, more blasts could be heard in the background.
"I don't support Fatah or Hamas," she explained. "Like most people in Gaza, we see the negative things in both organizations and don't understand how they managed to get to such a terrible situation. They think that we have a real state, and are killing each other in order to control this quasi-state. We have reached a point where brothers are killing brothers, in both senses of the term. There have already been a few instances in which, by mistake or not, a brother has killed or wounded his brother. None of the organizations are worth that."
Similar comments can be heard from almost all Gaza residents who are not members of Fatah or Hamas. The Palestinians in Gaza sound tired of local politics and the cruel competition between the rival factions. Fatah and Hamas have a negative image among the Palestinian public. This is a familiar problem for Fatah, but Hamas, which worked so hard to create the image of the "protector of the people," has lost its credibility and come to be seen by the silent Palestinian majority as wanting the best only for its own people, not one that's looking out for the good of the public at large. The leaders of both organizations have kept a low profile during the clashes. Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas disappeared from the media in the first days of the fighting, and PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah has gone on another trip abroad.
Role reversal
The fighting at the beginning of the week symbolized, to a certain extent, a reversal of the roles of Hamas and Fatah. First of all, the recent clashes made it clear that Hamas' supremacy in Gaza is in doubt, since Fatah has succeeded in coping with its rival's military might. Second, it was Hamas, rather than Fatah, that showed signs this week of disobedience problems and a leadership vacuum. The operatives in the field - members of Hamas' military wing, Iz al-Din al-Qassam - assumed command and ignored the instructions of the political leadership, while the Fatah security forces under Abbas demonstrated an unusual level of cooperation.
But these changes offer no relief for the residents of Gaza. A renewal of the fighting appears to be a matter of time, especially in light of the fact that the last battles began only 24 hours before a joint Hamas-Fatah committee was supposed to present an agreed-upon political platform, ahead of the establishment of a unity government. There was no crisis in the talks, and even the meeting in Damascus a few days beforehand, between Abbas and the head of Hamas' political bureau, Khaled Meshal, was considered successful. Nonetheless, a bomb that exploded in northern Gaza dragged the entire Strip back into a whirlwind of violence.
In light of the serious crisis of confidence between Fatah and Hamas, neither the planned summit for representatives of both groups in Saudi Arabia, nor the Egyptian mediation efforts are expected to prevent the next stage of the civil war. Even after Tuesday's cease-fire, it appears that the break in fighting is temporary, and that the next round is expected to be even worse.
At this stage, it appears that only the establishment of a unity government is likely to prevent a renewed outbreak of violence. Emissaries of jailed Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti went to Damascus this week to meet with Meshal in an effort to complete unity-government negotiations. There has not yet been an agreement on the political platform of the government that might arise, but perhaps the violence will urge Abbas and Meshal to demonstrate more willingness to compromise.