GAZA - Last Saturday, Samah Eid, 9 and her brother Ahmed, 7, of Jabalya refugee camp in northern Gaza Strip were afraid to go to school. The night before had been full of heavy armed clashes, with dozens of masked militants roaming the streets of the camp.

Their mother, Omayya Eid, 38, recalled that when she woke the children that morning, "they were so scared, and they told me, 'We don't want to go to school, because we don't want to die.' So I decided not to send them."

The Eids are not the only family that preferred to keep the children home in recent days; things were the same all over Gaza, due to the heavy armed clashes that dominated the Strip all week. A cease-fire went into effect on Tuesday, but even that was followed by the death of a Hamas man, who was shot, apparently by members of Fatah.

	Advertisement

"We witnessed two weeks of calm, so we thought that the fighting between Fatah and Hamas was over and that they would agree to jointly form a government. But then the violence suddenly erupted again, on Thursday night," said Omayya Eid.

Abu Samir, 55, a neighbor, said the images of this week's fighting "reminded us of the civil wars in Iraq and in Somalia. We were so close to civil war."

Samah and Ahmed's mother spoke with anger about all the militant groups. "Our children are terrified by the militants, but they're also learning from them to be more aggressive. Our life was really hellish during this fighting; every corner of the refugee camp was dangerous and it was hard to move for all the roadblocks and barriers."

As she talked, Abu Samir interrupted, calling the situation "unbearable. The militants are in every neighborhood, all of them are masked and all of them wear the same uniforms. We can never know which group or faction they belong to."

"Every faction in Gaza focuses only on militarizing its members and expanding its armed wing. Everybody prepares himself to confront his brother. I don't believe there can be a winner in such dirty battles, where the price is always paid by the innocents," said Abu Samir.

Driving around the Strip and talking to residents, one encounters many contradictions. Many residents say they are against Hamas, even if they voted Hamas in the last January elections.

Mahmoud Abed, who runs a Gaza shoe store, didn't deny the fact that he gave his vote to the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in last year's parliamentary elections. "I believed that Hamas was better than Fatah, but in the end I discovered that they're both bad.

"What's happening is a great shame and pity, and it has to be stopped. They [Fatah and Hamas] should be ashamed of themselves. Brothers point rifles at each other's chests, while the Israeli enemy watches on with glee," he went on.

This week's fighting was not the first of its kind, but it was the toughest since Hamas interior minister Said Siam decided, last April, to form the controversial executive forces, shortly after the movement formed a government.

After every temporary cease-fire failed, unidentified fighters in Jabalya threw a roadside bomb at a jeep of the Hamas force. One member was killed, and seven were wounded.

The attack took place a day before the political factions were meant to meet, to discuss a draft agreement for a unity government. In the Hamas force, they immediately pointed an accusing finger in the direction of Fatah. That same night, Hamas militants took revenge, murdering an activist in the camp of Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades.

Orders from Americans and Zionists

"There is a group of subversives in Fatah, supported by the Zionists and the Americans, who are not at all interested in the formation of a national unity government," said Yahia Musa, a Hamas legislator from Gaza.

Musa has directly accused Fatah senior leader and legislator Mohammed Dahlan and his camp of "receiving instructions from their masters, the Zionists and the Americans, to keep the area burning."

Mahmoud Abed, the shoe salesman, is convinced that "everyone is wrong and everyone is responsible," for the current situation. "We all have to work together to reach a permanent agreement that will end the fighting forever, instead of making temporary agreements that collapse every time the dialogue fails," said Abed.

One member of the Hamas executive force, whose nom de guerre is Abu Annas, said his group is not just a bunch of troublemakers. "We are legal, and we are cleaner than any other security apparatus. Our role is to restore security and protect our citizens. We don't violate the law."

But Abu Odai, a member of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades in Jabalya, says the Hamas forces are responsible "for all the internal troubles there have been since they were founded. Fatah militants are the victims, and we have the right to defend ourselves."

Last Saturday, Sunday and Monday saw the worst internecine fighting in the Strip, in which any militant standing in the street with a rifle was automatically a target. "You could hear shots and explosions around the clock in every neighborhood in Gaza City. We were worried, afraid, anxious during the day, and unable to sleep at night," said Basema Rayan, a 35-year-old mother who lives in the southwest part of the city.

The home and office of President Mahmoud Abbas, the home and office of Dahlan, the Hamas-led interior ministry, and the headquarters of the pro-Fatah Preventive Security Service are all in the city's southwest section, which takes in the neighborhoods of Remal and Tal al-Hawa.

Rayan's house is near the Preventive Security office. She said that for three days, "my husband didn't go to work and my children didn't go to school."

Start of a civil war?

To many observers, the violence of the past week in Gaza City had all the earmarks of the opening shots of civil war.

Hani Habib, a political analyst from Gaza, said, "This isn't new; whenever the dialogue has revealed even a glimpse of hope that a unity government might be formed, new obstacles appear." He added that "the troubles and difficulties are often intentional."

Although the two rival groups did agree to a cease-fire on Monday night, as a result of serious Egyptian pressure, Gazans' relief was mixed with the fear that it wouldn't last any longer than similar agreements reached between them in recent months.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Islamic Jihad were all involved in the efforts to end the Hamas-Fatah fighting, but every time the leaders of the factions gave the groups a promise, the agreement soon collapsed and fighting renewed.

This week, though, the two rival groups accepted an Egyptian initiative, as well as an invitation from Saudi Arabia to send delegations to Mecca for the start of intensive talks meant to lead to the formation of a national unity government.

The level of mutual trust between Fatah and Hamas, however, is at such a low point that many assume that any agreement can only be temporary. Both movements have rival armed wings ready to return to battle at the drop of a hat. They also have armies of media professionals and spin-masters, and their own local radio and television stations and Web sites.

In a bid to regain public support, the opposition Fatah has mobilized some of those spokesmen for occasional attacks on the performance of the Hamas government.

The fighting can be explained as much by mutual animosity and personal conflicts between the two movements as by political or ideological disagreement. "Hamas, and the government it leads, has been proceeding with purposeless appointments and illegal promotions in a way that weighs down the budget" of the Palestinian Authority, said Fatah spokesman Maher Miqdad.

In response, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoom characterized Miqdad's "accusations" as untrue.

"Everything here is connected to the political situation," said Palestinian analyst Yousef Sadeq. "When the two factions are talking, you find quiet on the ground and optimism in the air, but when the talks fail, they clash."