As Israel leaves Gaza, will militants lay down their guns?

"An important figure and symbol of corruption has been executed, but he should have been brought to a real trial. The Palestinian law should have taken its place on this issue," he says. "In the last two years, we ran many demonstrations in the streets demanding President Arafat to fire this man. I hope this will provoke the PA to start working on corruption."

Abu Faddak rearranges his Kalashnikov at his side and gives visitors to his home an explanation of everything splayed out across his coffee table. On it sits cups of tea, lemon-lime soda, grenades, and several sets of ignition switches that can be used to detonate a remote bomb. A child sits in the doorway to watch.

The mix of practical and tactical sums up the conflicting currents coursing through the heightened tensions here.

Some militants are looking at the possibility that, if Israel's withdrawal from Gaza is total, they will be under pressure to put down their guns and pick up civilian work. Others are viewing the edge of lawlessness on which the PA is perched, along with Mr. Abbas's tenuous control, and looking to capitalize on the power vacuum.

Abu Faddak, for his part, says he hopes the PA will bring groups like his under one military tent by absorbing them into its security and police forces. If not, he says, he might go back to tailoring, which would allow him to be home at night with his wife and two children - instead of on missions against the Israeli army.

Israel's withdrawal makes it possible that the raison d'être for these groups - fighting Israeli occupation - will disappear. But on the question of whether to lay down arms, Abu Faddak says, he does not look to Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, for leadership.

"Abu Mazen is always angry with the resistance," Abu Faddak says. "He doesn't agree with resistance in general. He's a politician who believes in peaceful means only, but Arafat left the doors open. We don't care about what Abu Mazen says. He didn't give us the orders to fight."

The Palestinian leader, who inherited an already weak authority after Arafat's death last November, is left struggling to satisfy the demands of his own people while cooperating with Israel to maximize the peace dividends of the pullout.

Palestinian opinion polls underline the environment of uncertainty. While 72 percent of Palestinians view the pullout as a victory for armed resistance, about two-thirds oppose the continuation of armed attacks against Israelis from Gaza if the Israeli withdrawal is complete, according to a survey released in June by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, based in Ramallah. However, some 60 percent of those polled said they oppose the collection of arms from armed groups.

Al-Quds, a Palestinian daily, reported that the PA would wait a month until after the Israeli withdrawal is complete to "tackle the issue of the weapons of resistance." That tough task is being pushed by Israel as a way to show that Abbas is doing his part alongside disengagement.

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