A tense and desperate sense of order settles in

[Scurrilous]

There's no doubt Hamas's brigades have a firm hold on tiny Gaza. But a humanitarian crisis looms

<snip>

"For more than a decade, Mohammed Dahlan's three-storey villa in the centre of Gaza City was a symbol of the power of the secular Fatah movement that many believed would always dominate Palestinian politics. From here, and from his nearby office in the Preventative Security headquarters, Mr. Dahlan commanded a supposedly elite unit of loyal troops and oversaw a feared intelligence service that was renowned for allegedly kidnapping and torturing its Hamas opponents.

In the new Gaza, his house is a hollowed-out shell of a building that has been stripped of its furniture and fixtures. Even the bathtub and toilet have been removed and, in an added indignity, someone has defecated on what was once the bathroom floor.

But it's the view from the second-floor balcony that would be most depressing for the man who Israel, the United States and Britain had hoped would counterbalance the rise of radical Islam in the Palestinian territories. With the flags of Hamas topping building after building, green is the only colour flying over Gaza these days. Mr. Dahlan is now in the West Bank."

<snip>

"Outside on the dusty streets, it was clear that Fatah's long and lawless era is over here, and that a stricter, more Islamic period has begun. Gaza's roads, usually chaotic and choked with traffic, moved in a brisk orderly manner. Hamas men in bright yellow jackets and green ball caps stood at each intersection, directing drivers who obediently followed their stern motions.

Even more telling, after 18 months of rival militias owning different neighbourhoods and streets, there is now only Hamas's 6,000-man executive force to be seen in Gaza.

It's been dubbed Hamasistan and its rulers are considered terrorists by Canada and much of the international community. But looting aside, there is for the moment a rare sense of security and stability that residents of Gaza haven't experienced in a long time."

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070620.wgazamain20/BNStory/Front

[Eugene]

1. Inside Gaza - calm returns at end of a gun

Source: The Guardian

Inside Gaza - calm returns at end of a gun

Rory McCarthy in Gaza City
Wednesday June 20, 2007
The Guardian

In the spacious, top-floor office of Gaza's former police chief,
the television was tuned to al-Aqsa TV, the Hamas channel,
and at lunchtime half a dozen well-armed, bearded Hamas
commanders rose in unison and knelt in prayer.

On the streets there were no policemen to be seen. Instead,
across the city stood small groups of Hamas gunmen, some in
uniform, others not.

-snip-

Hamas has full security control, but no political authority.
Ministries were deserted, the courts were not operating. All
the major Fatah security headquarters have been ransacked
along with the private homes of their key officers, including
Muhammad Dahlan, Fatah's strongman in Gaza. His house had
been stripped, even the bathtub and toilet had been ripped from
the concrete. Grafitti was daubed on the walls: "Here is the
house of the killer Dahlan who has been cleaned by the
mujahideen."

All official documents must now be obtained from the West Bank,
where an emergency government of pro-Fatah independents has
been appointed by Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president.
Gazans have been told that Palestinian passports issued here
since Friday are no longer valid. Since travel from Gaza to the
West Bank is restricted to a few and since all crossings out of
Gaza are effectively closed, it has cut off the 1.4 million
population. The evidence of battle is everywhere. Muhammad
Kalub, 19, spent three days with his mother and siblings hiding
in the bedroom of their fourth-floor apartment while Hamas
fighters destroyed the flat next door, home to a prominent
Fatah spokesman, Maher Miqdad.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,2106915,00.html