Hamas-led government deploys militant security force
Three thousand gunmen loyal to the radical Hamas government deployed across the Gaza Strip today, violently breaking up a peaceful teachers’ protest in a southern town, in the Islamic group’s most brazen challenge yet to moderate President Mahmoud Abbas.
The sudden show of force came hours after two Hamas members were gunned down in mysterious drive-by shootings that the group blamed on Abbas’ Fatah Party.
The deployment defied an order by Abbas and added to tensions that have been rising since Hamas defeated the long-ruling Fatah in January legislative elections.
The power struggle has spilled over into violence, and the Palestinian territories increasingly appear to be headed toward a bloody showdown.
The unit is headed by Jamal Abu Samhadana, a senior bombmaker high on Israel’s wanted list and suspected of masterminding a deadly attack on a US diplomatic convoy in 2003.
Abu Samhadana heads a small group that routinely fires rockets into southern Israel.
Hamas decided to send the new force into the streets after a series of drive-by shootings in Gaza killed two of its militants.
No one claimed responsibility for the attacks, which came shortly after the cars of senior Fatah militants were blown up in Gaza City.
But Hamas spokesman Mushir al-Masri blamed Preventive Security, a force filled with Fatah loyalists.
“This is a plan of the Preventive Security to draw Hamas into a civil war and to make the government appear ineffective,” he said.
Hamas officials said the new force’s aim was to bring order to Gaza, where marauding gangs of armed men routinely terrorise citizens.
The bulk of the force was sent to chaotic Gaza City, where bearded gunmen in black T-shirts and green vests took up positions along the main streets and at busy intersections, near banks and outside ministry buildings and parliament.
In one display, dozens of masked gunmen marched in formation through a major square.
Outside the Bureij refugee camp, fighters in the force stood just a few metres away from members of a security branch that answers to Abbas.
But in the southern city of Khan Younis, about 40 members of the new force pulled up to the Education Ministry, jumped out of their jeeps and fired in the air to break up a peaceful protest of recent college graduates who want teaching jobs.
The teachers were demonstrating against an application fee.
The gunmen moved inside the building, where they bludgeoned protesters with clubs and rifles, the graduates said.
“We were protesting peacefully, and suddenly these gunmen came and assaulted us,” said a protester as he applied a bandage to a small gash on his head. “We don’t know who they are or why they came here.” He identified himself only as Khaled for fear of retribution.
Police in the regular forces received instructions over their scanners to use force against anyone who interfered in police activity. A senior officer said the order was given with the formation of the new unit in mind.
The dispute between Abbas, who was elected separately a year ago, and Hamas has focused on control of the powerful security forces.
Abbas infuriated Hamas early last month when he appointed a loyalist to head three security agencies that report to the Hamas-controlled Interior Ministry. Hamas responded by announcing it would form a militant force of its own – even after Abbas vetoed the plan.
Tayeb Abdel Rahim, a top presidential aide, urged Hamas to reverse the decision. “This force doesn’t serve security. On the contrary, it creates problems,” he said.
The new force received mixed reactions from the public, reflecting the deep rift among the 1.3 million residents of Gaza, an impoverished, densely populated coastal strip.
In the town of Deir el-Balah, Hamas supporter Sufian Abu Mustafa welcomed the force and offered the new fighters cold water.
“It’s a very good step. We need even more than 3,000 to end the chaos,” Abu Mustafa said.
In Gaza City, Abdel Aziz Shaheen, a retired Fatah politician, held a solitary demonstration against the force outside the Palestinian parliament building.
“I don’t want to be ruled and governed by militias,” he said. “Maybe I am alone today, but I am sure that in the future we are going to see thousands of people protesting against these militants and against these masked people.”
While Palestinians clashed in Gaza, two Islamic Jihad militants were killed and another was wounded in a pre-dawn gunbattle with Israeli soldiers in the West Bank city of Nablus.
The Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad has been responsible for all nine suicide bombings against Israeli targets since Palestinian militant factions agreed to an informal truce in February 2005.
Also Wednesday, Israel reopened its main cargo crossing with Gaza, the coastal strip’s economic lifeline.
Israeli military officials said this signalled a change in policy since Amir Peretz, leader of the dovish Labour Party, became defence minister earlier this month.
Israel has kept Karni closed for nearly two months this year, saying Palestinian militants were trying to attack the site, as they have in the past. The closures have created food shortages and cost the Palestinians tens of millions of dollars in lost export revenues.
Meanwhile, Israel said a captured former Palestinian finance official admitted using foreign donor money to finance millions of dollars in arms purchases, on the direct orders from Arafat.
Prie Minister Ehud Olmert’s office said Fouad Shobaki, snatched by Israel in a March raid on a Palestinian prison, told his interrogators that as head of finance for the Palestinian security services, he channelled around €7m in aid money and public funds to buy weapons.
