Israel fights to dismantle Hamas

In the crumbling streets, endurance seemed to be the order of the day as youths hoisted mattresses on their shoulders for those made homeless by the damaging or complete destruction of 14 houses.

Four of those structures housed families of Palestinians involved in attacks on soldiers and Jewish settlers, the army says. Though human rights groups condemn the practice as collective punishment and a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, the army says the demolitions deter others considering violence against Israeli targets.

Neighboring houses were blown apart by the force of the blasts, which toppled the wall of a room where the Maqadme family took shelter after soldiers announced a curfew.

Jamil Maqadme, his face bruised and sweater torn in the explosion, remembers his mother leaving to make tea for his brother - and then an explosion. "Everyone was under the ruins," he says. "It was deep darkness. I heard my mother scream 'help.' "Something was on my chest, and it was difficult to breathe," he says. His father and a neighbor extricated him, but four of his siblings were injured, and his mother, Noha, was dead.

A block away at the house of Mr. Taha, the Hamas leader, nothing was left except toys and pieces of books in the rubble. Taha and two sons were in Israeli custody after a battle in which the army said grenades were tossed at troops.

The army holds the sheikh responsible for planning armed attacks, but Taha's son Hassan, sitting on a plastic chair amid the ruins, argues that his father is a preacher uninvolved in Hamas' armed wing.

As US-made F-16s flew above the camp, Hassan Taha asked: "Do the Israelis need to destroy half of Bureij to arrest my father? This will only increase the anger and the resistance."

It's a sentiment that fits snugly with Hamas's outlook. "The resistance is the best way to build more support among the Palestinians," says Ismail Abu Shanab, a senior Hamas leader. "Those who sacrifice their lives are seen by the people as patriots."

Though Hamas has taken part in recent Cairo cease-fire talks among Palestinian groups, Mr. Abu Shanab says the group is committed to armed resistance. Bir Zeit Professor Ahmed suggests that stance may be designed for domestic consumption. Championing resistance ensures Hamas's popularity while signing a cease-fire would rob the group of its reason for being, he says.

He notes that Hamas, which hopes one day to rival Mr. Arafat's Palestinian Authority as a political power, clearly scales back operations when it wants calm.

For now that is not the message Abu Shanab wants to convey. His office boasts a poster of Hamas's primitive Qassam rocket, which he calls a "message to Israelis that even though we do not have arms, we can develop means of resistance. The conclusion should be that Israelis cannot stop this resistance whatever security measures they take."

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