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THE internecine struggle between the armed wings of Fatah and Hamas, which has been going on intermittently ever since the Palestinian people voted in a new government in December 2005, has once again threatened to intensify. There are fears that the worst-case scenario of a full-fledged civil war is on the verge of becoming a reality. Recent Hamas-Fatah battles in Gaza have resulted in the deaths of more than 50 people.
According to the United Nations Office of Humanitarian Affairs, more than 150 Palestinians have been killed and 650 wounded in factional fighting since the beginning of the year. The bitter feud between the militias owing allegiance to the two groups has resurfaced despite the "Mecca accord" brokered by Saudi Arabia in February between President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority (P.A.) and exiled Hamas leader Khalid Meshal. The deal paved the way for the sharing of power between the two main Palestinian parties.
Palestinians had hoped that the deal would facilitate the lifting of the draconian sanctions the West had imposed on the Palestinians after Hamas was swept into power. Even when the P.A. was in power and donors were slightly more liberal with their money, Gaza was among the most impoverished places on earth. After the destruction of its infrastructure by Israel last year and the drying up of international aid, the situation in Gaza today has deteriorated. The use of starvation as a weapon by the United States, Israel and the European Union has resulted in unprecedented levels of unemployment and untold suffering. More than 80 per cent of the people live in poverty.
By the middle of May, with the Fatah militias under pressure, the Israeli army chose to enter the fray in Gaza. It started targeting the Hamas leadership, with the Israeli government announcing that it has resumed its policy of targeted killings of Palestinian leaders. One senior Israeli Minister said that Palestinian Prime Minster Ismail Haniya is also a legitimate target. In the third week of May, Israeli jets bombed the house of senior Hamas Minister Khalil al-Hayya in an apparent attempt to eliminate him. Seven members of his family and a neighbour were killed. The latest Israeli offensive has claimed the lives of more than 40 Palestinians.
Palestinian Minister of Education Nasser al-Shaer and National Assembly Speaker Abdel Aziz Daik were among 33 senior Hamas officials arrested in the West Bank and Gaza in late May by Israeli forces. The Israeli air force conducted a raid near Haniya's residence.
Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's Deputy Prime Minister, has threatened to resign if tougher action is not taken against Hamas. "The present coalition has reached the moment of truth. Either we dismantle Hamas or we dismantle the government." The Palestinian President, while condemning the arrests of the Hamas leaders, called for the cessation of the "absurd" rocket fire on Israel from the Palestinian side. Hamas has, however, remained defiant and issued an open call to all its cells to "strike against the enemy in every place in Palestine". Hamas continues to consider Israel a part of occupied Palestine. With Israel focussing its firepower on Hamas, the fighting between Fatah and Hamas, which lasted for more than a month, has stopped for the time being.
Israel claims that it had to resort to the use of force once again in retaliation for the rockets the Palestinian militants fired into its settlements near the border with Gaza. The Palestinian rocket attack intensified after Israel began stoking the fratricidal war in Palestine. Israel's sympathies are currently with President Abbas and Fatah. The Israeli authorities turned a blind eye to the crossing of 500 American-financed and Egyptian-trained elite Fatah fighters into Gaza from Egypt in the second week of May to bolster the anti-Hamas forces. The Israeli air force fired on Hamas forces in southern Gaza, killing four members of the Hamas Executive Force - the armed security group Hamas set up after its electoral victory. Under the terms of the "Mecca accord", the Hamas security force was to be integrated with the Fatah-controlled state security services.
Palestinian Interior Minister Hani Kawassme has resigned after the spurt in violence. He said that his efforts to coordinate the activities of Fatah and Hamas militias were undermined by influential Fatah warlords such as Mohammed Dahlan.
There are reports that US intelligence agencies are helping sections of Fatah with money and arms supplies. The administration of President George W. Bush recently sanctioned $40 million to train the 4,000-strong Palestinian Presidential Guard, which is directly under the control of Abbas. This is part of the $84-million aid package the US government has earmarked for the security forces loyal to Fatah.
There are reports that Egypt, too, is supporting US-Israeli efforts to undermine Hamas militarily and politically. Though Egyptian officials deny any partisan role in the Palestinian power struggle, it is well known that the political roots of Hamas are in the Muslim Brotherhood, the leading opposition party in Egypt. There is no love lost between the Egyptian government and the Brotherhood.
The Presidential Guard is under the operational command of Mohammed Dahlan, who is reputed to have a very close working relationship with US intelligence agencies. Dahlan, who spent five years in an Israeli jail during the first Palestinian Intifada, has a committed power base in Gaza. After the Mecca agreement, Abbas appointed Dahlan as his "national security adviser". This move was not appreciated by Hamas, which holds Dahlan responsible for carrying out repressive acts against it after the signing of the Oslo accords in 1993. Dahlan was the head of the Preventive Security Branch at the time. Reports in the Arab media suggest that Abbas appointed Dahlan as national security adviser at the insistence of the Bush administration, which was unhappy with the Mecca accord.
US Deputy National Security Advisor Elliot Abrams, who is described in the American media as "the last neocon standing" after the departure of his senior colleagues - Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz - has talked about the need to stage a "hard coup" against the Hamas-led government. The man chosen for this task, which many in the Bush administration as well as in the Israeli establishment view as a foolhardy enterprise, is Dahlan. According to Electronic Intifada, the reputed Palestinian online journal, Dahlan reportedly negotiated with the US and Israel about taking control of Gaza after Israel announced its "disengagement" plan. Former Israeli Defence Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer told the Knesset that he had offered control of Gaza to Dahlan in return for guarantees that he would ensure complete calm on the border with Israel. Dahlan controls a force of 20,000 trained under the supervision of American intelligence agencies.
Some senior Israeli and American officials are of the view that it is dangerous to foment a civil war among the Palestinians. Israeli media reports have suggested that officials close to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert seem to think th
Despite the overwhelming constraints, in the year and a half it has been in power, Hamas Ministers and officials have shown that they are honest, competent and incorruptible. To the Palestinian people, this was in marked contrast to the rule of Fatah. An article published in Haaretz, one of Israel's leading newspapers, quotes a senior adviser to Olmert as saying that Hamas cannot be replaced and that it was Fatah that was disintegrating. The paper reported that Shin Bet, the Israeli secret service, had concluded that Fatah's chances of winning "would be close to zero" in case new elections are called.
A tenuous truce seems to be holding between Fatah and Hamas after Israel escalated its attacks on Hamas targets in the fourth week of May. It was the fifth ceasefire between the fighters in recent times. Earlier ceasefire appeals did not have an impact on the ground. This has led some commentators to conclude that the leaders of the factions have lost control over their cadre.
The Hamas leadership has called for a "second Mecca accord" to iron out the major policy differences with Fatah. The most serious differences between them are over the composition of the Palestinian Security Forces. The Islamists wants the security force to be a truly representative one and to be led by a non-controversial personality. Hamas is also suspicious of the US security plan for the region, which aims to reinforce the primacy of Fatah in the occupied territories.
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