Sunday June 17, 2007
The Observer
"....Discreetly, Hamas had forged links with members and former members of Fatah with whom it was happy to deal......It was a message that would dramatically underline the nature of last week's assault. It was not an attack on Fatah, the broadcasts would insist, or Gaza's people. Instead, those under attack, the supporters of Gaza's head of the Preventive Security Force, Mohammed Dahlan, were 'collaborators with Israel and the US and traitors'.
What they did not say, but what was understood by all Gazans, was that the leadership of Hamas has a more personal grudge against the deeply unpopular Dahlan. Specifically, they blamed him for ordering a series of killings of members of Hamas that in their view had fuelled the cycle of violence that stepped up after Hamas swept Fatah from power in January last year.
......Although it is still unclear who gave the order, the results were instantly obvious: an all-out assault by Hamas fighters on the security strongholds controlled by Fatah. By mid-afternoon, much of Gaza had fallen to Hamas.
.......Other eyewitnesses have described individuals in the Fatah-controlled security forces being singled out for death, an impression strongly reinforced by Hamas's leaders themselves, who spoke on Friday of 'cleansing' a group within Fatah, not the group itself......
In the end, as most people in Gaza - whether they are supporters of Fatah, Hamas or neither - are quick to concede, Hamas won because, as in last year's elections, they were organised. And Fatah was again shambolic.
......As Hamas consolidated its grip on the narrow coastal strip last week, it produced a former senior member of Fatah - Khaled Abu Helal - on its TV station to say that he welcomed Hamas's cleansing of Fatah of its collaborators and traitors. He announced too that he would be forming a new Fatah committee to oversee the organisation.
The collaboration of Fatah members with Hamas was also suggested strongly by other witnesses. One told The Observer that some officers in the Presidential Guard had sent their men home as the fighting began. Another Hamas official, the spokesman for its Qassam Brigades, Abu Obaida, insisted there was co-ordination between the two sides as the purge went on.......The decent people of Fatah were co-ordinating with us and are happy we have got rid of the corrupt people of Fatah. Now we have to enforce law and order.'.....
How did Hamas win? In the eyes of Gaza residents, the fight and subsequent defeat were inevitable because Fatah's forces in Gaza were widely considered nothing more than an undisciplined series of criminal gangs. '[They won] from motivation, not fighting for money,' said another Gaza resident. 'They are not getting salaries. It's not a question of Hamas having more fighters, I don't think there were more, but the quality of the men carrying the weapons is totally different. 'Some fought for four days without going home. They believe in what they're doing. The others, Fatah security forces, fought for their thousand shekels (£120) or a packet of cigarettes. Dahlan had used poverty to recruit the people. The majority didn't even turn up to defend their stations, many stayed at home. Most were in plain clothes. Dozens called the Qassam and said, "We want to leave, give us security and a safe passage." Most of the decent security people don't want to fight for Dahlan, or Israel or America. They don't feel they should be killed for the American or Israeli agenda.'
'These guys [Fatah] would join either Hamas or the Israelis tomorrow if someone would pay them,' said one local journalist. 'They don't care who they fight for, as long as they get paid.' And they performed like it last week.......
.....For despite Hamas overtures, it was clear that President Abbas was prepared to risk an even more dangerous confrontation with Hamas, swearing in a new emergency government yesterday after both he - and Hamas's bitter enemy Dahlan - had met senior US diplomats......."
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