Hamas nearly wins control of Gaza

Hamas tightened its grip over Gaza Wednesday, leaving just a few pockets of Fatah resistance as the final obstacles to the Islamic militants establishing complete control over the coastal strip.

Clashes between the two Palestinian factions continued throughout the day, killing at least 10 people and causing many to call the conflict an all-out civil war between America-backed Fatah and their Islamist rivals who oppose a peace deal with Israel.

The prospect of Gaza falling to Hamas, and Fatah retaining a military advantage in the West Bank, is raising concerns that Palestinians could find themselves divided, which would deal a severe blow to their movement for an independent state.

"This is the end of the Palestinian state, frankly," says Palestinian legislator Hanan Ashrawi. "If you have two separate systems, there is no way that you can have a Palestinian state that is contiguous." If there is no change in the tide of the fighting, Gaza will become a "hostile" Palestinian ministate in the Gaza Strip controlled by Hamas, while the West Bank would remain under Israel's control with a Fatah-run militia in control of the cities, Mrs. Ashrawi says.

That would mean a de facto reversal of the Israeli-Palestinian peace agreements that recognized Gaza and the West Bank as a unified political entity despite their physical separation.

Fighters from the Hamas movement seized most of the security headquarters in southern and northern Gaza Strip that belonged to rival Fatah, a Hamas military spokesman said Wednesday. Abu Obaida, spokesman for Hamas's military wing, told reporters that "no security positions in northern and southern Gaza Strip are left."

The Hamas gains were confirmed by Fatah spokesman Tawfiq Abu Khoussa, who conceded that the Islamic militants had taken over some Fatah security posts.

At least three key locations in Gaza City – the compound of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the headquarters of the Preventative Security Service, and the compound of the Palestinian Military Intelligence – were thought to be still under the control of Fatah.

Repeating a call for a truce between the two groups, President Abbas indirectly threatened to pull his Fatah Party out of the Hamas-led unity government if fighting did not stop. On Tuesday, Fatah suspended its participation in the government, calling the fighting in Gaza a coup attempt.

"I don't blame any party. I blame those who point their guns at the faces of their brothers," Mr. Abbas told a joint news conference in the West Bank city of Ramallah after a meeting with Holland Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen.

Palestinian self-rule

If Hamas consolidates its military control in the Gaza Strip, it would raise questions about the fate of Palestinian self-rule in the coastal strip of about 1.5 million people. The breakdown of central authority in Gaza has already left the Palestinian Authority (PA) with few functioning offices.

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