A
Triumph For Hamas... But A Tragedy For The Palestinians?
By Donald Macintyre
in Jerusalem
15 June 2007
The
Independent
The
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas dissolved the "national unity
government" last night and sacked its Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh
after an especially savage day of internecine violence ended with Hamas
in control of the Gaza Strip.
Mr Abbas's move, which Fatah
hopes will underpin its dominance of the West Bank after the near-total
defeat of its forces in Gaza, underlined the growing separation of the
two Palestinian entities and prompted talk among some Israeli analysts
of a "three state solution" involving Israel, Gaza and
the West Bank.
Hamas Radio underlined Mr
Abbas's lack of control over Gaza when it said the faction had taken
control of his presidential compound, a symbolic last redoubt of Fatah
power in Gaza.
Hamas's internal grip on
Gaza was consolidated yesterday after it captured the headquarters of
the Fatah-dominated Preventative Security force and two other security
bases and took effective control in the southern border town of Rafah,
in a bloody day of fighting which cost 32 Palestinian lives. Three bodies
were found under the rubble of a Fatah-controlled security building
in Rafah which had been overrun by Hamas.
In a decree announced by
one of his senior aides, Tayeb Abdel Rahim, in Ramallah and swiftly
dismissed by Hamas officials in Gaza Mr Abbas declared a formal
state of emergency, said he was dissolving the woefully ineffective
Fatah-Hamas coalition brokered by Saudi Arabia three months ago and
promised to form a new government in its place.
But it had been the battle
for the headquarters of Preventative Security in Gaza City which was
the bloodiest as well as the most decisive in Hamas's relentless four-day
campaign to take control of Gaza. This was not least, according to witnesses,
because of a murderous aftermath in which several Fatah activists were
dragged from the building and executed in the street.
Television pictures had earlier
shown some of Hamas's Fatah captives being marched along the street
with their hands in the air. The Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri denied
reports of executions and insisted: "Whoever was killed was killed
in clashes."
He added the Islamic group
had been forced to wrest control from Fatah because its security services
were corrupt and generated chaos. But a Fatah official said that Hamas
shot dead seven of its fighters outside the building and a doctor at
Shifa Hospital said that he had examined two bodies shot in the head
at close range.
Neither the official nor
the medic were prepared to give their names for fear of reprisals. A
witness, Amjad, also declined to give his full name when he told the
Associated Press from his home: "They are executing them one by
one. They are carrying one of them on their shoulders, putting him on
a sand dune, turning him around and shooting."
The headquarters has a symbolic
importance for Hamas beyond its role as a key military bastion and the
bloody assault on the compound appeared to be in part a settling of
scores more than a decade old. It was Preventative Security that spearheaded
Yasser Arafat's famous crackdown on his Hamas opponents in the mid-1990s.
It was also in this building that the interrogations took place in which
Hamas figures of the time like Mahmoud Zahar who until a few months
ago was the Palestinian Foreign Minister are alleged to have been
humiliated and tortured by the Fatah forces.
Some of the masked Hamas
gunmen kissed the ground after the building was captured amid thankful
cries of "Allah Akbar". Hamas TV said the Preventive Security
building would be turned into an Islamic college and displayed a room
packed with what the station said was wire-tapping equipment.
The attack came after five
days of fighting which have cost 90 Palestinian lives and seen both
sides carrying out other summary executions, throwing opponents from
the upper floors of high-rise buildings, hijacking ambulances to use
as military vehicles, and engaging in gunfire inside the precincts of
hospitals.
The dire impact of the conflict
on Gaza's 1.5 million inhabitants was underlined when the European Commission
suspended aid projects because of the escalating violence.
Mr Haniyeh reaffirmed his
belief in the national unity government in a television broadcast early
today and insisted it would continue to the " best of its abilities".
He appealed once again for the release of Alan Johnston, the kidnapped
BBC journalist. And he went out of his way to dismiss the idea that
a separate Palestinian state could be created in Gaza.
Fatah leaders who were blamed
by Mr Haniyeh for undermining the national unity government came under
criticism from local commanders for absenting themselves from the Strip
during the fighting.
In the West Bank Fatah militants
rounded up nearly 90 Hamas fighters in the first such effort to reassert
its authority since the Arafat crackdown in 1996. Issam Abu Bakr, a
Fatah leader in the West Bank city of Nablus, said: " There was
a decision by the leaders of the security forces to go after Hamas and
to arrest them, before they think of bringing the war here."
The near-rout of Fatah in
Gaza is a signal setback to the US-led policy of trying to bolster Fatah
forces with money, training and equipment, while continuing the total
isolation of Hamas despite increasing signs of strain between the political
and the military wings.
While the former appeared
ready to try to make the national unity government work, the latter
argued that it had failed to achieve a lifting of the international
boycott.
Israeli officials were quoted
as saying that Ehud Olmert would tell President George Bush that Gaza
and the West Bank will now have to be treated differently, and that
the military would need to enforce a " separation policy"
between the two Palestinian entities.
In fact, even in relatively
peaceful times, Gaza has been almost totally separated from the West
Bank. The comprehensive agreement which Condoleezza Rice thought she
had brokered in November 2005, and which included provisions for "safe
passage" from Gaza to the West Bank, has not been implemented.
Israel retains control of Gaza's crossings, territorial waters, and
airspace.
Nevertheless the Israeli
hints suggested the possibility of a "West Bank first" policy
of trying to reach agreements with Mr Abbas which ignore Gaza.
In terms of progress to a
long-term settlement there are paradoxes in this approach, because there
is little to negotiate about over Gaza, which is bounded by pre-1967
borders and where there are no longer any settlements. Negotiations
about Jerusalem and the borders between Israel and the West Bank are
much more fraught.
The forces behind this eruption
of violence
Who and what are Fatah and
Hamas?
Fatah, formed in the 1950s
by Yasser Arafat, started as an armed liberation movement trying to
take control of the whole of historic Palestine. But after finally recognising
Israel it took part in the Oslo accords in the early 1990s in the hope
of a two-state solution in which Israel would give up the territory
it seized in 1967 to make way for a Palestinian state on the pre-1967
borders.
Fatah ran the Palestinian
Authority set up under Oslo and lost the PA elections partly because
it was seen as inefficient and corrupt, and arguably, partly because
it had failed to fulfil its ambition of a Palestinian state. Hamas,
formed in 1987 was a Palestinian offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood,
committed then - and by its charter now - to establishing an Islamic
state in the whole of historic Palestine.
It gained popularity both
through its commitment to armed actions against Israel, from the mid-1990s,
including suicide bombings against civilians, with the result that it
was labelled a terrorist organisation by most of the Western world,
and for its administration of a social welfare network.
It has resolutely refused
to recognise Israel but its political spokesmen have spoken of a long-term
truce in return for a Palestinian state on 1967 borders. Elected to
a parliamentary - and therefore cabinet - majority in January 2006.
How come they are fighting
now if they are supposed to be in government together?
The bitter rivalry between
the two groups, partly compounded by the refusal of elements in Fatah
to accept the results of the 2006 elections, had spilled into serious
violence, resulting in some 160 deaths, at the turn of the year, an
outbreak supposed to have been stopped by the Saudi-brokered Mecca deal
which formed the new "national unity" coalition. But it was
a shotgun wedding, based on the deep desire of the Palestinian population
for security and the allocation of ministerial posts rather than a joint
political programme. And second, it looks as though neither Mahmoud
Abbas the (Fatah) President or Ismail Haniyeh the (Hamas) Prime Minister
have been able to exercise full control of their forces.
How did the latest round
of fighting start?
Almost impossible to identify
a single moment though there were a number of incidents on 8 June, including
the violent kidnappings of two Hamas figures by Fatah gunmen, a bodyguard
to Mr Haniyeh and a doctor, who were respectively beaten and shot and
wounded.
A Fatah activist was also
shot dead by Hamas gunmen after they complained he had been among gunmen
who attacked Hamas supporters outside a mosque. But these incidents
were triggers rather than causes.
© 2007 Independent News
and Media Limited
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