Members of the Abu-Sharah family, one of the most famous clans in the Gaza Strip, marched through the streets of Gaza City on Tuesday, carrying the body of Hassan Abu-Sharah. They took the body straight to the courtyard of the Palestinian parliament. Palestinian policemen tried to prevent the group from entering, but several dozen armed men from the clan easily pushed past them and started shooting in the air. They demanded that the Palestinian Authority arrest Hassan's murderers, although they were aware that the chances of the security forces taking such action were virtually nil. Hassan, 54, had been shot dead two days earlier by members of one of the largest and strongest clans in the city: the Durmush clan.

Supporters of clan head Mumtaz Durmush - who call themselves the Army of Islam - had apparently, due to a mistake in identity, abducted Abu-Sharah and then executed him, disposing of his body in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood. On the day that the Abu-Sharah clan marched with the body, the Army of Islam published a statement admitting its responsibility for the murder and claiming it had been a mistake. Mumtaz Durmush's men even apologized in the statement and called on the Abu-Sharah family to show restraint. But the family was not placated by the announcement and demanded revenge. It was only when some members of the parliament emerged from the building to speak with the demonstrators that they were persuaded to stop their protest and to bury Hassan.

Mumtaz Durmush was also apparently involved in the abductions of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit and of BBC correspondent Alan Johnston. "Everyone in Gaza knows who is holding Johnston," a Palestinian officer who is a member of Fatah says bitterly. "But no one dares to take action against them. The Sabra neighborhood where the Durmush clan members live looks like a giant army camp. Hamas and Fatah are busy fighting each other rather than preparing a plan to take over Sabra."

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Incidents like the killing of Abu-Sharah have become common in Gaza. On Saturday, the day before Hassan was murdered, the following incidents were recorded in the Strip: Militants from Hamas' Operational Force kidnapped a member of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' presidential guard in the Jabalya refugee camp; in response, members of the victim's family abducted a Hamas activist; and during negotiations to stop escalation of the confrontation, one of the soldiers in the Hamas force threw a hand grenade in the family's direction and wounded three of its members. Additionally, a few hours earlier, armed men, apparently from the Army of Islam, blew up part of the American International School in the northern Gaza Strip. They did not touch the guards on duty there, but explained to them that "it is forbidden to guard an institution belonging to infidels."

Casualty lists

In addition to the murder of Hassan Abu-Sharah, on Sunday, two members of the Abu-Amer family were murdered and a third was injured. The background for this was apparently a feud between clans. On that same day, the deputy head of the Palestinian manufacturers' association was also shot and wounded while someone tried to steal his car. Two passersby were injured by gunshots during an attempt to attack a toy salesman in Gaza City, and a member of the Hamas Operational Force was injured by shots fired at the organization's headquarters in the center of the Strip.

On Monday, 12-year-old Muhammad al-Saadi was killed in northern Gaza by a stray bullet shot during an exchange of fire by rival clans near his home. Five-year-old Iyat al-Jarad was critically injured in the head also by a stray bullet while playing near her house in Beit Lahia. In other incidents, another seven Palestinians were injured by gunshots and in fights, and one Hamas activist who was working with explosives in his house was wounded when some of them went off. In addition, unidentified gunmen fired at two buildings housing the headquarters of security forces controlled by Fatah, but there were no casualties.

On Wednesday, two 12-year-olds were killed in the northern Strip and in Gaza City. One was killed by a bullet accidentally fired from a weapon found in his home; the other was killed in a random shooting near his house. Also a 27-year-old woman was killed in the Bureij refugee camp during a shoot-out between clans. In other incidents, a member of military intelligence and a 12-year-old boy were wounded by gunfire during a confrontation between rival families; two youths were injured in the northern part of Gaza when an explosive device went off; and the car of Ahmed al-Marani, the attorney general in the Gaza Strip, was stolen in an armed robbery.

According to data released by the Ramallah Center for Human Rights, since the start of 2007, 63 Palestinians have been killed and some 400 injured in clashes because of the chaos in the security situation. Most of the casualties were in the Gaza Strip, which is beginning to resemble the Somalian capital of Mogadishu. Tens of thousands of men armed with light weapons and RPGs do whatever they think fit; the Palestinian police are not effective and the courts are not functioning. In armed feuds between clans, the Palestinian security forces do not get involved at all.

Heavy price

The "council of elders," a body that consists of the heads of clans, tries to effect a compromise that will make it possible for the families of a murdered person to receive suitable compensation. However, because of the financial situation in Gaza, most of these rivalries continue to claim a heavy price in blood. One of the worst hit sectors of the population, because of the absence of proper legislation, is women: Almost every week, women are murdered in Gaza because of what is called "family honor." They are buried in secret and in haste without any publicity.

The Christians in Gaza have also become victims of violence. A library owned by a Palestinian Christian was set on fire, apparently solely because of the owner's religion.

Dozens of Internet cafes have been set alight or bombed by Islamic extremists, who consider them dangerous for the youth. The bombing of the American school is yet another example of the activity of fundamentalist elements that do not have the support even of Hamas.

People who deal in weapons, drugs or prostitution are enjoying unprecedented prosperity, even though the Hamas security mechanism referred to as the "implementation force" brags about its ability to counteract these phenomena.

"The implementation force sends text messages every day to journalists in which it reports that hashish dealers, or those dealing in prostitution, have been caught," says A., a Gaza journalist. "But why don't they deal with the armed robbery of vehicles or with those who abducted Johnston? No one prevents blood revenge between families. What would I do if someone attacked a member of my family? I'd also murder the murderers, who are immediately released from jail. Every armed man has a clan or organization behind him, of which the police are afraid, and therefore the police release the suspects."

The journalist adds: "There are two options today that could take us out of this situation: Someone strong in the Gaza Strip who does not care about a confrontation with the clans, or an Israeli occupation. Many people in the Strip hope that Israel will reoccupy it because these phenomena were not prevalent during the Israeli occupation."

Hamas is becoming Fatah

Tuesday was a relatively quiet day, compared to the last few weeks in Gaza: Unknown assailants attacked and seriously injured a resident of Khan Yunis, hitting him over the head with a blunt instrument, and armed gunmen shot at the car of Majdi Arabeed, head of the Voice of Freedom radio station in Gaza, but there were no casualties. Two years and three months ago, Arabeed was very seriously wounded by shots from an Israel Defense Forces unit operating in the Gaza Strip while he was filming a report together with Channel 10 correspondent Shlomi Eldar. He recovered and went back to work. But in recent days he has once again become a target - this time of Palestinian armed men. It is not clear whether they are from one of the Islamic movements or one of the rival clans.

"There is no law in Gaza," he says. "No one talks any more about negotiations or about freeing prisoners. They are all busy with the question of who killed whom and how. The police are afraid of the gunmen because if they try to arrest them, they will immediately be depicted as collaborating with Israel. In addition, the competition between the various forces of Fatah and Hamas has become destructive from their point of view, and their image is negative. Everyone stores up weapons at home to defend themselves. Even if the state prosecutor publishes an arrest order against a resident of Gaza, who is able to arrest him if he and his family are armed?"

Arabeed claims that the responsibility lies with Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh's Hamas government, which is not able to function. Some analysts in Gaza believe that Hamas' decision to fire Qassam rockets at Israel on Independence Day was an attempt to make the Palestinian public forget the movement's failure to restore order in the streets of the Strip. It seems as if Hamas is trying to remind the Palestinian public once again of its "good old" image as a terrorist organization that fights Israel fearlessly. But the chaos in Gaza has also had an effect on its ranks.

"They have become like us," one Fatah activist says. "They fight over everything: money, positions, ranks, who will be director general and who will be captain in the offices and the security mechanisms that they are responsible for. There is no longer one leader who decides everything. The authority of Khaled Meshal, the head of the political bureau, has been badly eroded since the Mecca agreement. Their message to the Palestinian people is not uniform; all of a sudden, they sound like a supermarket of different ideas, just like Fatah was at one stage: [Hamas co-founder] Mahmoud al-Zahar speaks about destroying Israel, while Haniyeh broadcasts a moderate message. The military wing does whatever it wants."

Israel doesn't need to take comfort in these remarks. In the reality that is Gaza, where economic hardship screams out, there are quite a few Palestinians who wish to send Qassam rockets at its northern neighbor - and not necessarily for ideological reasons. The head of a unit of launchers gets $5,000 from the organization that sends him on his mission for releasing a salvo of rockets - an enormous sum in Gazan terms. The members of the unit receive several hundred dollars. The economic temptation is immense. It is less important to those launching the rockets whether the target is actually hit. That may be important only to those who wish to see the IDF return as an occupier to Gaza.