Square One Again: Taking Hamas and
Fatah Back To The Edge Of Open Strife
August 1, 2008
The enduring strife between
Hamas and Fatah took a turn for the worse this
week when an explosive device went off beneath
a car parked at a Gaza beach, killing five
Hamas military personnel as well as a
six-year-old girl. The incident occurred
Friday 25 July, as thousands of Gazans flocked
to the sea, fleeing the unusually severe heat
of summer.
The victims, who were also vacationing at the
beach, included prominent figures in Hamas's
military wing, the Ezzeddin Al-Qassam
Brigades, including the son-in-law of Khalil
Al-Hayya, a key Hamas leader. Hamas held "the
treasonous trend" within Fatah -- an allusion
to the US-backed group led by former Gaza
strongman Mohamed Dahlan -- responsible for
the bombing, vowing to capture the
perpetrators and punish them severely.
Dahlan and his forces fled Gaza last year
after Hamas carried out a pre-emptive coup to
foil a planned US-backed coup by Fatah
security forces that Hamas says was aimed at
eradicating the legitimate Hamas government in
the Gaza Strip.
Fatah, which initially displayed signs of
satisfaction, denied any involvement in the
incident. But in a clear provocation to Hamas,
Fatah as well as the Fatah-dominated
Palestinian Authority (PA) suggested that the
bombing was an internal Hamas matter, which
independent Palestinian observers dismiss as a
remote possibility.
Seeking to identify and arrest the
perpetrators, Hamas security forces in Gaza
carried out a widespread campaign of arrests
targeting Fatah activists. According to human
rights groups, as many as 150 Fatah activists
were arrested, many of them released a few
hours after their detention.
In the West Bank, the PA, which functions in
coordination with the Israeli army, launched a
vitriolic wave of incitement against Hamas,
accusing the Islamist movement of waging a
witchhunt campaign against Fatah. Fatah and PA
leaders were careful to deny involvement in
the murder of the five Ezzeddin Al-Qassam
officers, accusing Hamas of using the incident
to justify its crackdown on Fatah.
Seeking to spite Hamas, Fatah's mukhabarat
(general intelligence) raided the homes of
suspected opposition figures in the northern
West Bank, arresting as many as 100 people.
The detainees included elected officials of
the Nablus municipal council, judges,
professors, students, civic and religious
leaders, many of whom unaffiliated with Hamas.
One of the detainees is professor Abdul-Sattar
Qassem, a former presidential candidate and
outspoken critic of the PA who has nothing to
do with Hamas. Qassem, who was released
Tuesday night, told Al-Ahram Weekly that he
didn't know why he was arrested.
"They were generally polite with me, but one
officer briefly questioned me about articles I
write which he considered strongly-worded."
Qassem said he would propose to both Hamas and
Fatah to "authorise independent, nationalist
Palestinian intellectuals to look into the
internal Palestinian crisis and try to find a
solution."
The Weekly sought to ask Nablus Governor Jamal
Muhesen why he allowed the arrests despite
their being groundless. Muhesen refused to
speak, but his personal secretary said: "The
arrests were carried out without the
governor's knowledge. The decision came from
Ramallah, The governor has nothing to do with
it."
Meanwhile, PA President Mahmoud Abbas, who had
described the Gaza bombing and Hamas's
subsequent crackdown on Fatah as
"regrettable", spoke of an impending Egyptian-
mediated effort to restart national
reconciliation talks between Fatah and Hamas.
Hamas rejected Abbas's remarks, calling them
an "exposed attempt to divert attention from
the Gaza beach bombing." Moussa Abu Marzouq,
deputy chairman of Hamas's political bureau
dismissed Abbas's call for dialogue as
"meaningless and not serious in light of what
his security apparatuses are doing in the West
Bank."
Abu Marzouq described the arrest of Hamas's
cadres in the West Bank as "rabid", accusing
the PA of colluding with Israel in targeting
Hamas. He also refuted claims that the arrest
of Hamas supporters in the West Bank were in
response to the arrests of Fatah activists in
the Gaza Strip.
"The arrest of some Fatah elements in Gaza
took place in the context of an investigation
into a murderous crime that killed six
innocent people. But Fatah's arrests of Hamas
supporters and other Palestinian citizens were
politically motivated and meant to serve the
interests of the Israeli occupation."
The extent of the repercussions of the Gaza
bombing on the prospects of Palestinian
reconciliation is not clear. What is clear is
that the conflict between Fatah and Hamas is
assuming an increasingly tribal nature.
On Tuesday, a high-ranking Hamas delegation
left for Cairo for talks with Egyptian
officials, including General Intelligence
Chief Omar Suleiman, on strengthening the
tahdia, or ceasefire, with Israel. According
to Hamas officials, the delegation will press
Egypt to reopen the Rafah border crossing in
honour of earlier Egyptian undertakings in
this regard.
The arrival of Hamas delegation in Cairo
coincides with the arrival in the Egyptian
capital of an Israeli official in charge of
the so-called "Shalit file" -- the case of an
Israeli soldier captured by resistance
fighters two years ago. Israeli media Tuesday
reported that beleaguered Israeli Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert had agreed to relax
criteria for the release of Palestinian
prisoners in an exchange deal.
According to Israeli press sources, the
"flexibility" Israel is showing would have to
be reciprocated by Hamas. Yet in this context
the Israeli occupation army continues to
indiscriminately torment and savage
Palestinian society. On Monday, the Israeli
army burned down a furniture factory in
downtown Nablus, causing losses estimated at
more than $3 million.
This ostensibly deliberate crime comes at a
time when Western donors are trying
desperately to revive the Palestinian economy
in order to enhance prospects of peace between
Israel and the Palestinians. Sabri Hindiyyeh,
a proprietor of Qaser Hindiyyeh Furniture,
told Maan, "the Israeli army fired light and
smoke bombs into the store at 2am on Tuesday
turning everything in the shop to ashes."
Earlier, the Israeli army destroyed a multi-
storey building in Beit Hanina in East
Jerusalem under the pretext that the building
had been built without a valid licence.
Caption: Palestinian mourners carry the bodies
of killed Hamas militants through the streets
of Gaza Saturday after an overnight bomb blast
killed five senior Palestinian militants and a
five-year-old girl; Palestinian President
Abbas speaks to the press after meeting with
President Mubarak in Cairo Sunday;
Palestinians inspect the destroyed house of
Hamas member Shihab Al-Natche, 25, following
an Israeli army operation in the occupied West
Bank city of Hebron Sunday. Israeli soldiers
arrested three other men in the raid.
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