Hamas wakes up to grim reality

Hamas wakes up to grim reality
ANNETTE YOUNG IN JERUSALEM

"GAZA is becoming the Mogadishu of the Mediterranean," said one Palestinian official who refused to be named. "People thrown off the rooftops of 10-storey buildings, Palestinians shooting other Palestinians at point blank, others shot in front of their families. So Hamas is in control but do they really think people won't forget what has happened given our culture of pay-back and revenge?"

Yesterday, as locals awoke to the reality of a Hamas-controlled Gaza, people were beginning to count the cost of last week's fighting. Some shops began opening, university students returned to classes and people nervously left their homes for the first time in five days.

With Israel having closed the Erez and Karni border crossings, and Egypt having done the same with the Rafah crossing, Gaza is effectively sealed off from the rest of the world, with its 1.5 million residents having no choice in the past week but to stay in their homes as gun battles raged on the streets outside.

"I still haven't yet been outside my building in the last week. None of my family has," said Professor Naji Shurab, a lecturer in political science at Al Azhar University. "All we did is sit in front of the television trying to work out what was going on as we heard gunfire outside.

"While Hamas has the ability to keep the gangs in control, that is not the problem. It's whether they will be able to ensure the hospitals have enough supplies, people have food and that salaries are being paid.

"And are they going to talk to the Israelis about reopening the border crossings to get aid in and also ensure that water and electricity is still supplied to Gaza?"

Yesterday, Hamas officials called on Palestinians to bring an end to the looting of Fatah military bases and homes belonging to Fatah officials.

In a scene which one bystander likened to looting in Baghdad after the fall of Saddam Hussein, hundreds of people swarmed through the unoccupied villa of former Fatah security chief, Mohammed Dahlan (now based in the West Bank), after his neighbourhood fell to Hamas, stripping everything, including windows, doors and flower pots.

"The battle is over. Hamas is in control of the streets but the main issue for Palestinians is to push both sides to understand that the only way to achieve victory is through dialogue and not with violence," said Ahmad Shawa, the Gaza co-ordinator for the Palestinian NGO Network. "But with the border crossings closed - which are our lifeline - we are facing a shortage of food and medicine and the situation is becoming more critical by the day."

Click here for the full story! (may need to disable pop-up blocker)