[A-List] Hamas Seizes Broad Control in Gaza Strip

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

<http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/14/world/middleeast/14mideast.html>
June 14, 2007
Hamas Seizes Broad Control in Gaza Strip
By STEVEN ERLANGER

JERUSALEM, June 13 — Hamas forces consolidated control over much of
Gaza on Wednesday, taking command of the main north-south road and
blowing up a Fatah headquarters in Khan Yunis, in the south.

In northern Gaza and Gaza City, Hamas military men, many of them in
black masks, moved unchallenged through the streets as Fatah fighters
ran short of arms and ammunition and abandoned their posts. Hamas
controlled all of Gaza City except for the presidential compound of
Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah and the Suraya headquarters of the National
Security Forces, the Palestinian army. Hamas has surrounded Al Suraya,
calling on the occupants to surrender.

The powerful Hamas move to exert authority in Gaza, and the poor
performance and motivation of the larger security forces supposedly
loyal to Fatah, raised troubling questions for Mr. Abbas and Israel,
and left the White House with a dwindling menu of policy options.

Mr. Abbas faces the collapse of Fatah power in Gaza and a putative
Palestinian state divided into a West Bank run by Fatah and a Gaza run
by Hamas. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel warned of "regional
consequences" if Gaza fell under the complete control of Hamas, an
Islamist movement that does not recognize Israel's right to exist.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Hamas control of Gaza would limit
Israel's ability to negotiate with Mr. Abbas, as Washington wants.

Hamas spokesmen said the movement had no political goal except to
defend itself from a group within Fatah collaborating with Israel and
the United States. They said they wanted to bring the security forces
under the control of the unity government, in which Fatah agreed to
play a part until the current fighting.

Some Israeli security officials say Israel wants to see the West Bank
isolated from Gaza, even more so with Hamas in control there. One
official suggested that Hamas's show of strength in Gaza would make it
more likely that the Israeli military would intervene there this
summer to cut back Hamas's military power. The Israeli security
services say Hamas, which is able to smuggle weapons and explosives
from Egypt, is developing a sophisticated army on the model of
Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

The Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mark Regev, said Israel did not see
"the implosion of the Palestinian Authority in anyone's interest." In
Gaza, he added, "the clear strength that Hamas is demonstrating on the
ground is a problem for us, and a challenge."

"It's a problem for the Palestinians, too," Mr. Regev said. "Our whole
policy is to work with moderate pragmatic Palestinians who believe in
peace, and Hamas hegemony in Gaza is not good for Israel, for the
Palestinians or for peace."

Since the election victory of Hamas in January 2006, the United States
and Israel have worked to isolate and damage Hamas and build up Fatah
with recognition and weaponry. Asked whether the Hamas gains showed
the failure of that policy, Mr. Regev said: "I don't think Israel or
the international community should give up on Palestinian moderates.
That would be a self-fulfilling prophecy."

Some in Israel, however, are beginning to ask whether it might make
sense to have indirect discussions with Hamas, which is clearly not
going away.

In Wednesday's clashes in Gaza City, Hamas took over the Awdah
building, a tall apartment complex where many Fatah leaders lived,
causing another Fatah leader, Maher Miqdad, to flee with his family,
after at least eight Fatah men were killed. Hamas also took over and
burned the main police station, another symbol of Fatah power, and
surrounded the main national security headquarters building, Al
Suraya.

In northern Gaza, Hamas gave fighters in isolated Fatah military
headquarters until Friday at 7 p.m. to surrender their weapons.

In Khan Yunis, Hamas detonated a large bomb in a tunnel under the
headquarters of Fatah's Preventive Security, an elite paramilitary
force, killing at least one of those inside and wounding eight more.

Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, said the movement was defending
itself, not reaching for unalloyed power.

"There is no political goal behind this but to defend our movement and
force these security groups to behave," Mr. Zuhri said in an
interview.

He insisted that "Hamas did not initiate these attacks, but it was
pushed to do so to end crimes by the factions inside Fatah who favor a
coup." He said Hamas "is doing the work that Fatah failed to do, to
control these groups," whom he accused of crimes, chaos and
collaboration with Israel and the United States.

Mr. Zuhri said the United States should "sit with the movement at the
dialogue table on the basis of mutual respect, respecting the
elections."

Mr. Miqdad accused Hamas of following an Israeli script. "This is an
Israeli plan," he said. "They want to connect the West Bank to Jordan
and make Gaza a separate jail. This will be the end of an independent
Palestinian state."

Abdullah al-Aqad, 28, of Khan Yunis, said he joined the national
security forces to have a job. He marveled at the speed of the Hamas
advance. "We are 70,000 P.A. soldiers, and where are they all?" he
asked. "And facing 10,000 Hamas soldiers."

Mr. Abbas, in Ramallah, on the West Bank, spoke to the exiled Hamas
political leader, Khaled Meshal, to try to ease the crisis. "This is
madness, the madness that is going on in Gaza now," Mr. Abbas told
reporters.

At least 13 Palestinians were killed on Wednesday and 64 injured,
according to Moaweya Hassanein of the Palestinian Health Ministry. He
said 59 had died since Monday.

The dead included two workers with the United Nations agency that
helps the 70 percent of Gazans who are refugees or their descendants.
The agency announced it was curtailing its operations until the
fighting stopped.

While Fatah blamed Hamas for the crisis, an Israeli analyst of
Palestinian affairs, Danny Rubinstein, said the "primary reason for
the break-up is the fact that Fatah has refused to fully share the
Palestinian Authority's mechanism of power with its rival Hamas,
despite Hamas's decisive victory in the January 2006 general
elections."

Fatah "was forced to overrule Palestinian voters because the entire
world demanded it do so," Mr. Rubinstein added. "Matters have come to
the point where Hamas attempted to take by force what they believe
they rightfully deserve."

Taghreed El-Khodary contributed reporting from Gaza City and Khan Yunis.
--
Yoshie