One year on, Hamas deepens rule in Gaza

< Prev | 1 | 2

World Blog: Tel Aviv, Israel

Helping Israelis through the recession - and Rosh Hashanah

A day at the beach for Palestinian children

Most popular

Hamas, aware of the damage the Gaza-West Bank split has done to the Palestinians' statehood aspirations, says it wants to return to a power-sharing arrangement with Fatah — like the one dissolved last June 14 when Hamas took control of the strip.

"We need each other," says Ghazi Hamad, political adviser to Hamas' prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh.

But for Fatah's West Bank government, joining forces with Hamas could jeopardize the large amount of money it gets from the international community. And Israel has made it clear it won't hold peace talks with any government that includes Hamas, which remains sworn to the Jewish state's destruction.

Story continues below ↓

advertisement | your ad here

Entrenched
Meanwhile, the prevailing view in Gaza is that Hamas is becoming entrenched.

Motorists now must pay to register their vehicles and Hamas police control traffic — a big change from the general mayhem under Fatah-led governments. This past week authorities began blocking Internet porn, jamming many wholesome sites in the process.

Not everyone is happy with Hamas' methods, but Gazans are reluctant to complain. Hamas has shut down all opposition media in the strip, and two men interviewed for this story said they were tortured by Hamas — one displaying a leg wound that he said came from metal spikes driven into his shin.

Support from Syria and Iran helps keep the Hamas government running. Iran is said to be both financing Hamas and providing increasingly sophisticated weaponry to attack Israel.

The moderate Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, also sends lots of money into Gaza by paying salaries to former Fatah employees on the condition they stay home from work.

But even Gazans with money can find little to buy. Some goods are smuggled in through tunnels from Egypt, but mostly only food and medicine are allowed in, leaving acute shortages of everything from cement to baby strollers.

Gaza's children seem the most vulnerable in the bitter standoff. Between 70 percent and 90 percent are failing math in U.N.-run schools and 60 percent are failing Arabic, said John Ging, Gaza director of the U.N. agency in charge of Palestinian refugees. He blamed the children's flunking on "overcrowding, underfunding and a violent environment" that does not encourage study.