The Seething Anger in Gaza
GAZA CITY—Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas isn't important enough in Gaza to be hated. That distinction goes to his enforcer, Mohammed Dahlan, the Palestinian Authority's former security chief in Gaza.
Outside the newly captured Preventive Security headquarters, six young Hamas gunmen drink tea as they recount their recent victory over Abbas's Fatah fighters and vent their anger about Dahlan's notorious security forces. One of them, who calls himself "Abu Mohammed," says: "I was held in this building for two years and tortured for being a mujahid [Islamic fighter], and Dahlan executed my brother for being in Hamas. He also killed two of my cousins, and two more cousins are martyrs killed by the Israelis." Then he offers what here is the ultimate epithet: "Dahlan is an Israeli."
Meanwhile, the Hamas gunmen guarding Abbas's presidential residence in Gaza are eager to counter reports on PA-controlled television that Hamas allowed the home to be looted. Inside, the place is spotless. The gunmen say that "there will be no problems now because Dahlan and his Jew spy conspirators are gone." These young men say they harbor no animosity toward Abbas but wish he had not dissolved the Hamas-led coalition government. They see Hamas's takeover as a way to escape the tyranny of "collaborators and criminals," by which they mean Abbas's Fatah officials.
Followers. One Hamas man, Abu Khalil, says that he would respect any attempt to form a unity government with the Hamas leader, former Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh. "If he [Abbas] makes an agreement with Haniyeh, then I will serve him." The rest of the fighters seem bemused by his earnestness. When pressed, they simply add, "we are Hamas; we do what our leaders tell us."
The streets are generally quiet now. Much of the policing is done by unarmed Hamas men in bright vests that say POLICE in English and Arabic. At the Rafah camp near the Egyptian border, a Fatah stronghold, there is talk of a possible insurgency against Hamas. The Rafah camp, with some 41,000 residents, and some other areas remain loyal to Abbas, but for now Hamas has them intimidated.
At the heavily fortified Erez crossing, the only exit point from Gaza into Israel, a few hundred people gathered last week in the largely futile hope that the Israelis would let them join their leaders (including Dahlan) in the West Bank. (At the end of the week, many were bused instead to Egypt.) A number of the men evidently were panicky Fatah intelligence and military officials fleeing Hamas's wrath. The tunnel where they waited smelled of trash and human waste. Many of them cursed Hamas, Israel, Dahlan, and Abbas in quick succession. One man yelled, "We have been betrayed by our leaders."
This sentiment is repeated a lot by Fatah fighters here: They hate their old leaders now because they fled at the start of the fighting. Says another man, "I curse all of them."
This story appears in the July 2, 2007 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.
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