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Feature: Gazans enjoy security, serenity but worry about bleak
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07:23, July 10, 2007 |
Sitting under a beach-umbrella on the beach of Gaza City, Hassan Hamouda and his wife, are looking at their three children skylarking and chasing after each other happily on Monday.
As calm and serenity have dominated the Gaza Strip over the past two weeks, Hamouda and his family finally decided to spend the summer vacation on the beach.
"My children got their three-month holiday when summer began, but I deliberately ignored their request to go to the beach for fear that they might be hurt in infighting between Fatah and Hamas," said Hamouda, father to two boys and an eight-year-old girl.
"But Gaza is quiet now. There is no chaos and there is no infighting with Fatah," added his wife Samira, wearing a long- sleeve dress and covering her head with a white scarf.
Calm has returned to the impoverished enclave of the coastal strip following three years of chaos and security deterioration that claimed the lives of hundreds of Palestinians.
On June 14, Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip following days of bloody infighting with Fatah, led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who in turn dissolved the Hamas-led unity government and sworn in an emergency replacement in the West Bank.
"Before Hamas movement controlled the Gaza Strip, we suffered a lot from chaos and the severe security situation," said Samira, giving her daughter a banana and adding that "but now chaos has gone."
Hamas armed wing al-Qassam Brigades and the executive security forces began an unprecedented campaign against corruption and chaos following the takeover.
Khalil al-Dayya, a Gaza resident, said, "before Hamas took control of Gaza, we called the police dozens of times to storm drugs dealer in our building but no one has ever come."
"Now, just one phone call to 109 (the emergency phone of Hamas executive force), more than 30 executive force members stormed the building and had easily detained the drug dealer," al-Dayya added.
BLEAK FUTURE FOR GAZANS
"It is good to end chaos and live in safe and security but it's not enough. What we need is to open crossings, improve our living conditions and change the vague political situation," he noted.
Al-Dayya was echoed by many Gazans who are worried about their bleak future in the enclave amid political and economic crisis.
As a result of the Fatah-Hamas fighting, the geographically- divided Palestinian territories have been politically split into two parts -- with Hamas controlling Gaza and Fatah holding the West Bank.
Hamas, which is facing increasing isolation from Israel and the West after it seized control of Gaza by violence last month, also faces isolation from Abbas and the emergency government.
Gaza residents have been undergoing an impoverished life as world donors and Israel imposed embargoes on the Hamas government since it took office last March after defeating long-dominant Fatah in legislative elections.
The boycott was eased after Abbas installed the emergency cabinet headed by internationally respected economist Salam Fayyad and Israel transferred more than 100 million U.S. dollars of the frozen tax revenues to the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) earlier this month in a bid to bolster moderate Abbas.
But the emergency government excluded some 19,000 employees hired by the sacked Hamas-led national unity government when it paid full salaries to civil and security servants in the West Bank on July 4.
Politically, Hamas has made several overtures to Abbas for talks, which were, however, rebuffed by the Palestinian leadership, saying that there would be no dialogue before the Islamists were held to account for the take-over of security forces in Gaza.
Misfortunes never come singly. All crossing points in Gaza Strip were closed since Hamas seized control of Gaza Strip in mid June.
The Rafah border terminal on the borders between the Strip and Egypt, the only gateway to the outside world bypassing Israel, was closed on June 9, leaving about 6,000 Gazans stranded on the Egyptian side of it since then.
According to the Health Ministry, 28 stranded Palestinians had died since the border was sealed off.
Moreover, Gaza could start running out of flour, rice, edible oil and other commodities in two to four weeks unless Israel reopens the border crossings, a UN report warned.
Source: Xinhua
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