By Nour Abuzant
The violent clashes between Hamas and members of a radical group that claimed the lives of 24 people in Gaza yesterday have added to the disunity among the Palestinian factions and weakened their position in their struggle against Israeli occupation, members of the Palestinian and other Arab communities in Qatar have said.
Clashes erupted in Gaza after Abdul Latif Musa, leader of the Jund Ansar Allah declared an Islamic emirate in the strip after Friday prayers and the Hamas leadership intervened and killed him and some of his followers to crush the revolt.
The shooting that began on Friday afternoon in Rafah, on the Egyptian border, continued until dawn yesterday.
Saher, a Doha-born Palestinian, told Gulf Times that the events “gave Israel another excuse” to add more fuel to the fire and “someone cared to give them (the Israelis) a free gift”.
He did not blame Israel for the latest developments, but said the Jewish state “is watching the clashes with pleasure as it continues to build settlements in the West Bank, while the Palestinians are busy fighting each other”.
Saher said that people who gave their enemy a gift on a golden plate like this, do not deserve a state of their own, adding that the Palestinians lack political maturity.
Oudeh, from Gaza, recalled that the clashes started after Friday prayers, just an hour after Hamas premier Ismail Haniya denied Israeli reports that pro-Al Qaeda radical elements had infiltrated Gaza.
“In the best case, we would say that Haniya does not know, as before, what is going on around him and that a lot of things are taking place behind his back,” said Oudeh.
He believes that Iranian elements helped Hamas subdue the radicals on Friday, but Haniya should not believe that kind of support would last forever.
Monadel, another Palestinian, on the other hand believed that the clashes in Gaza would not affect the prospects of the establishment of a Palestinian state “simply because that was any way out of reach”.
Imad, a Palestinian born in Gaza, believed that it was early to say whether Hamas’ control on the ground would last for long, saying that the movement’s popularity had been on the decline due to their “unwise behaviour.”
Yousef, a Palestinian sharing his time between Jordan and Qatar, believes that the Hamas victory against the Jund Ansar Allah group would strengthen their position in the talks with their rival, the Fatah movement, in Cairo.
“It was a message to other factions that Gaza is their stronghold and that they would not be beaten on their home ground.”
Noted Qatari lawyer Mohsin al-Suwaidi, said that those “radicals” are “mercenaries pushed into Gaza by Israel” to create a rift within Hamas. “The Israelis wanted to shake the Hamas movement from inside using their long arm and to make them busy with other things.”
Al-Suwaidi said that it was hard to believe that Israel was not involved in the clashes and that one of Israel’s targets was to consolidate the already existing separation between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Shafik, a Doha-based Syrian, raised doubts that the “so-called radicals” were in fact pro-Qaeda members. “I think that the misled elements lied about their identity and some people believed their lie.”
Salman, a Yemeni living in Qatar, blamed the media for playing up the feuds in the Arab world. “All Arabs want our Palestinian brothers to show a united front to end the occupation of the holy places like Al Quds (Jerusalem),” he said.