Awaking
To A Different Gaza
By Philip Rizk
writing from Gaza City
16 June 2007
Live
from Palestine
In
Gaza people awake today to a new reality. Last night, my host Isa told
me military coups were the sort of thing he heard and read about, he
never thought he would experience one. Yesterday Gazans did.
Although the final Fatah
stronghold was still standing by the evening Hamas fighters were already
making the rounds in the streets, three and four jeeps at a time, loaded
with armed men wearing all black, their faces covered with masks, holding
their guns in the air, a few, rather uncomfortably, waving to the people.
On al-Aqsa, the only remaining radio station being aired from Gaza belonging
to Hamas, these areas are being called "freed" from the traitors.
A former Fatah spokesman,
now speaking on behalf of Hamas, was heard on the air denouncing his
former leaders, calling them US spies and traitors.
A further shock came around
8pm when Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) announced Gaza a renegade entity
and declared his presidency over the West Bank. Gazans reacted with
disgust. During the fighting of the past few days Abu Mazan was largely
silent, ordering his forces to stay in their bases. Many consider Abu
Mazen to have sold out his own leadership in the Gaza Strip by not coming
to their rescue; now he was throwing his people (Fatah supporters) away,
like garbage, they said.
With the electricity cut
and cell phones working only rarely people clung to the radio to hear
as the latest news unfolded. With only one local station in Gaza and
only one perspective to be heard rumors abounded. Supposedly fishermen
had called in to the Hamas station reporting that some of the Fatah
leadership taking final refuge in the president's compound had escaped
by sea -- some heading south to Egypt, others north towards Israel.
One report gave the name of a drug dealer and a Fatah spokesman supposedly
escaping together on one boat.
Sitting on the street one
could hear the news spread, often the same names of people who had been
killed or thought to have escaped were mentioned among the people walking
by. The coup d'etat was the only thought on their minds of young and
old.
A friend who works with a
Fatah security apparatus told me that the Hamas men who came to his
door checking IDs had treated him well. As long as one did not have
his weapons on him and stayed home Hamas considered these Fatah members
"honorable" in contrast to the "traitors" who resisted
what Hamas considers their justified military coup. "Traitors"
were at times either shot in the legs or depending on their status brutally
executed.
One of the Fatah military
compounds freed on Friday was the location of prisons and torture halls
where many Hamas members had been tortured over the years for their
opposition to the Fatah government. The Hamas celebration at taking
it over was only logical.
On Wednesday on Palestine
TV, a Fatah station aired callers crying about the horrible scenes they
had witnessed. An Islamic Jihad sheikh was interviewed condemning the
events on the streets of Gaza. By Thursday all radio and TV stations
belonging to Fatah in the Gaza Strip were closed down.
Generally people are very
concerned about what the near future holds. The streets seem rather
secure, but anyone that was at all in opposition to Hamas is scared,
most are staying home or are in hiding somewhere. Cars are moving about,
people are walking the streets, I am back at the Marna House, people
are smoking shisha and laughing. Along the road outside old men are
sitting in the shade playing backgammon. The combination of normalcy
of life and fear of the unknown of the future makes for a strange atmosphere.
Philip Rizk is
an Egyptian-German who has lived in Gaza since August 2005 where he
works and writes. Philip runs a blog: tabulagaza.com.
Leave
A Comment
&
Share Your Insights
Comment
Policy
Digg
it! And spread the word!
Here is a unique chance to help this article to be read by thousands
of people more. You just Digg it, and it will appear in the home page
of Digg.com and thousands more will read it. Digg is nothing but an
vote, the article with most votes will go to the top of the page. So,
as you read just give a digg and help thousands more to read this article.