Sunday, August 3, 2008

Gaza revolution complete


Hamas completes mission year after Gaza coup, clears remaining ‘Fatah traitors’

By Ali Waked

"Fatah, which up until the last few years was the largest and oldest movement in the Gaza Strip, closed down its last branch among a population of more than one and a half million Palestinians on Saturday.

The Hamas raid on the Hilles clan compound prompted the last Fatah men who survived the Hamas revolution to make their way into Israel, and from there directly to Ramallah.

Officially, the raid against the Hilles compound was meant to identify those behind last Friday’s attack in the Strip that killed five senior Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades members and a girl. Yet beyond it, this was an attempt to convey a message to the last rivals of the Hamas regime in the Strip. Hamas made it clear that whoever attempts to undermine stability and peace will not be shown any mercy.

The Hilles clan was considered to be Fatah’s last stronghold in the Strip – the bastion that did not fall during Hamas’ revolution, mostly because of the hostility between the heads of the family and the Mohammad Dahlan camp. Now that the clan has been removed, there are no longer any military forces in the Strip that can undermine or significantly hurt the Hamas regime.

Today, we can say that the June 2007 revolution has been completed. From now on, Hamas is the only ruler in the Gaza Strip; there are no longer any rivals and certainly not any armed pockets of resistance that are visible.

Fatah, the movement that led the Palestinian revolution, has no authority vis-à-vis Salam Fayyad’s government in the West Bank and has been left without any presence in the Gaza Strip.

The return of Palestinian Authority members to Gaza seemed impossible even before Saturday’s events, and certainly so without Israeli intervention and Egyptian assistance.

Yet in the wake of Saturday’s events, the likelihood of the Palestinian Authority forces returning to the Strip is non-existent. Hamas has succeeded in what it characterizes as “clearing the last traitors from the Strip.” "

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