AP News, June 15th, 2007
Fatah loyalists who fled the Hamas takeover of Gaza huddled Friday in the lobby of the best hotel in Ramallah, chain-smoking, drinking Turkish coffee _ and trying to come to terms with their new lives in exile.
They fielded phone calls from relatives in Gaza and were told their homes had been searched by Hamas gunmen looking for weapons and documents.
The gunmen "told our families they want everything that belongs to the government," said a Fatah security officer.
Another officer said Hamas loyalists had seized his car, a Kalashnikov rifle and hand grenades.
A third, a relative of Fatah's deposed Gaza strongman, Mohammed Dahlan, said his name is enough to get him killed. He said he had no faith in the amnesty for Fatah members announced by Hamas.
"We don't trust Hamas," he said. "We need to wait for some time until the situation in Gaza gets more clear."
All declined to give their names. "There is a new era in Gaza and Hamas will count every word we say," one explained.
____
In the upscale Tel al-Hawwa area of Gaza City, residents were glad to be rid of a bad neighbor _ the fortress-like Preventive Security headquarters, one of the Fatah compounds seized by Hamas.
"Many in the area were annoyed by their presence here," said resident Jihad Abu Ayad. "Now, they are ululating and cheering Hamas."
Among the Fatah security service's unneighborly acts was setting up roadblocks, stopping cars for inspection and raiding local residents homes in search of suspects. Many agency officials also lived in the neighborhood.
Although the building's new Hamas occupants don't cause the same inconveniences, their presence could bring even greater ones.
"Israel could hit the premise with an airstrike," Abu Ayad said. "Battles over the compound could restart. Now we don't know what could happen."
____
Little sleep, lots of coffee and cigarettes _ the battle for Gaza has been bad for everyone's health.
"All I have done for the past days is smoke and drink coffee," said Samah, a Fatah activist who gave only her first name for fear Hamas would target her.
The 26-year old activist said she has worked for Fatah institutions since she was young, but now has no place in Gaza.
"We are all wanted now," she said, dismissing Hamas' promised amnesty for Fatah members as a lie.
"There is no one in Gaza but Hamas," she said, adding that she plans to move to the West Bank to live with relatives there.
___
Hassan, an employee of Fatah security, was awaiting the final battle for the main police compound in Gaza City on Thursday when he was rescued by an unlikely interloper: his mother.
"My mother came to the Saraya and started screaming," Hassan recalled from his home in central Gaza. "The soldiers gathered around us and took her to my officer. She started screaming at him, and he just said: 'Go home Hassan.'"
To get out, he stripped down to civilian clothes, dropped his weapons and sat next to his mother in a car as she negotiated her way though Hamas' roadblocks.
"It was a miracle I went home," said Hassan, who declined to give his last name because of embarrassment.
___
There just wasn't enough space. The bodies of 42 people _ of the dozens killed in Gaza _ ended up in the morgue at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. The morgue only had room for 20, said Dr. Juma Saqqa, a hospital official.
Nor were there enough blankets to cover the dead, as required by Muslim tradition. So four corpses were laid out on the bloody floor, their clothing full of bullet holes.
"May God have mercy on all our dead," said an elderly onlooker. "No matter who they were."
___
Fleeing Fatah security personnel, deserters and survivors of the Hamas attacks on their compounds throughout the Gaza Strip attribute their rivals' sweeping victory to Hamas' weapon of choice: the mortar.
Hamas fighters lobbed hundreds of the arching projectiles, scarring the facades of buildings and striking fear in their adversaries. At one point, 10 mortars fell on the president's compound in five minutes, said a presidential guard.
"They launched a lot of mortars," said Anwar, a Fatah security official who gave only his first name because he is in hiding. He said Hamas often pounded buildings for days before sending in fighters. This terrified Fatah security men, making many of them flee their posts.
Fatah gunmen manning automatic rifles on rooftops or in watchtowers usually responded with a cascade of ineffective bullets.
Abu Obeideh, spokesman for Hamas' military wing, said his men relied on mortars because they could fire them from inside their bases. He added, however, that they now had access to more advanced weaponry they had confiscated from seized compounds.
"Weapons that we have never seen in our lives before," he said.
