GAZA CITY, 1 September 2003 — Gaza is living on its nerves. People scan the skies for Israeli jets and helicopters and rumors of an imminent Israeli invasion ebb and flow. On seeing an aircraft, drivers race off the main streets or ditch their cars in traffic jams — the car next to yours might be its target.
Israel’s open season on Hamas militants, following the Jerusalem suicide bomb which killed 21 people, has forced the Islamic group in Gaza underground for the first time since the Palestinian Authority’s 1996 crackdown on it. Over the past ten days, Israel has killed Ismail Abu Shenab, the most moderate Hamas leader, seven activists and two bystanders; Hamas has declared its cease-fire, kept since June, over; and Israeli officials have declared all Hamas members to be assassination targets.
Hamas has decided to lie low. Last week a seven-point survival leaflet was distributed, telling Hamas “brothers” that they are targets and should assume all telephone conversations are monitored, and that Israeli spies are all around. Vehicles should be used only in an emergency, and then only in alleyways and not main roads.
The death of Abu Shenab has radicalized Hamas, ironically suppressing the ideas for which he stood, and put Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas — known as Abu Mazen and recently regarded as the man to carry forward the US-backed road map — in a position described on Friday as “clinically dead”.
Imad Falouji, an independent member of the Palestinian Parliament who left Hamas in the 1990s when it refused to take part in elections, said that Israeli violence would only make Hamas stronger and more extreme. “People have greater sympathy for them and the movement is growing all the time,” he said. “There are two wings in Hamas. The first believes the only language the Israelis understand is the language of blood. The second was led by Abu Shenab and it believed in the possibilities of dialogue and negotiation. Now the second group is silenced and the extreme line has been vindicated by Israel’s actions.”
Two weeks ago it was easy to find Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders. Last week the office of Mohammad Al-Hindi, leader of Islamic Jihad, was closed. Abel Aziz Rantisi, a Hamas leader who survived an Israeli assassination attempt last month, was at his Gaza City home but said he would not be giving interviews or leaving his home in the current climate. The Palestinian Authority’s police are patrolling areas used by Hamas to fire rockets into Israel, and the Palestinian Monetary Authority has frozen 36 bank accounts belonging to Islamic charities linked to Hamas.
However, analysts in Gaza and Ramallah believe the main victim of the Israeli attacks and international pressure is not Hamas, but Abbas and his policy of non-violence and negotiation. In Gaza on Thursday hundreds protested against his decision to freeze the charities’ accounts. Even his supporters say that this action affects only the poor.
Hamas has now added a new dimension to its fight. Last week Kassam rockets hit the Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon. The range of Hamas rockets has been extended up to eight miles.
