World

Gaza: War Of Bullets Now A War Of Words

June 15, 2007 / 5:57 AM EDT / CBS/AP

After days of intense fighting, Hamas now controls the entire Gaza Strip — a change in the political landscape with broad, but still unclear implications for the eventual success of any unity government in the Palestinian territories, as well as for peace with Israel.

Relative calm appeared to return to Gaza on Friday, as Hamas announced that all Fatah prisoners taken in the last five days of fighting would be granted amnesty and released.

But the violence gave way quickly to a political war of words between Islamic Hamas and the Western-backed Palestinian president and Fatah party leader Mahmoud Abbas.

Trying to assert his power after Hamas' swift takeover of the Gaza Strip, Abbas fired Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, of Hamas, and named Finance Minister Salam Fayyad, an independent, to replace him.

But whatever power Abbas once wielded in Gaza disappeared with the collapse of his forces there. Haniyeh brushed off Abbas' decision to fire him, calling it "hasty" and refusing to leave office. The situation was "not suitable for unilateral decisions," Haniyeh said.

"The era of justice and Islamic rule has arrived," Hamas spokesman Islam Shahawan announced.

In the short term, at least, for the embattled Gazans trapped in the middle of the violent political power-grab, Friday brought some hope of life without crossfire.

CBS News correspondent Richard Roth reports Hamas, whose fighters only Thursday were sacking government offices and allowing looters to carry off the spoils, now says it's determined to impose order.

Traffic was back on the streets and few armed men were visible, in contrast to the running battles of the past few days.

Abbas announced that the new Palestinian government would be sworn in Friday evening, but soon postponed the ceremony without giving any further explanation.

The new government will replace the now defunct Hamas-Fatah coalition formed just three months ago.

(CBS)

Abbas' decrees won't change the reality that Hamas now controls the Gaza Strip, but might enable Fatah to consolidate its control over the West Bank, and could pave the way for two separate Palestinian governments.

Because Fatah has recognized Israel's right to exist and signed on to past peace agreements, the international community's boycott of the Palestinian territories in the wake of Hamas' electoral successes may no longer apply to the West Bank — just to Gaza. Some 2 million Palestinians live in the West Bank, while 1.4 million reside in Gaza.

CBS News Mideast analyst Michael Oren called Hamas' Gaza takeover, "a historic and horrific event ... The creation of a terrorist mini-state de-facto on the Mediterranean, with ramifications for the entire region."

Oren said, beyond the immediate possibility of local consequences — namely the threat of violence spilling over into the West Bank — other countries in the region are watching the situation "with tremendous trepidation."

Shock waves from the battle could reach "through Jordan, into Iraq, where the insurgency will be emboldened by the Hamas victory," Oren said, adding that Iran, one of Hamas' key supporters, will also have relished the victory over a Western-backed faction in the Mideast.

As far as Washington is concerned, the U.S. vision of a two-state solution to the Mideast conflict is now looking much different than planned, reports CBS News correspondent Robert Berger.

The Palestinian territories essentially have been split into two parts: Gaza is now under the control of Hamas, an Islamist movement with close ties to Syria and Iran. The West Bank, home to most of the Palestinian population, is dominated by the more moderate Fatah, which has ties to Israel and the West.

(AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday that Abbas, seen at left during Friday prayers, still has the support of America, and that he is still the legitimate leader of the Palestinian people. The European Union also restated their backing of the Fatah leader on Friday.

Oren predicts that Rice "will be back in the region as quickly as possible, trying to expedite the peace process between Israel and Fatah — and Israel and Mahmoud Abbas" in particular, in an effort to bolster the embattled leader's political clout.

In the last wave of fighting in the chaotic strip of land on the Mediterranean coast, Hamas gunmen defeated their Fatah rivals with surprising swiftness Thursday, seizing security installations and marching once-feared Fatah fighters down the street in front of television cameras, shirtless and with hands raised. The violence left more than 90 people dead.

What Hamas didn't broadcast, reports Roth, were the brutal street-side executions.

Witnesses, Fatah officials and a doctor reported Hamas militants executing seven Fatah fighters; shot in the head, gangland-style. Hamas denied any such killings.

An Israeli Cabinet minister said that despite calls from the right for Israel to reoccupy the Gaza Strip, which it left in 2005, Israel would not move in to confront Hamas, which is sworn to destroy it.

"There is no intention to re-enter that swamp, Gaza, in this situation. At this point, Israel has no reason to intervene," Meir Sheetrit told Israel Radio.

Fearful that Hamas' momentum could spread to the West Bank, Fatah went on the offensive there. In the city of Nablus, Fatah men fatally shot a Hamas member early Friday, Hamas said, the first to be killed in the West Bank. The Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a violent Fatah offshoot, claimed responsibility.

In other developments:

The Israeli Cabinet on Friday approved the appointment of the new Labor Party leader, Ehud Barak, as defense minister, an Israeli official said. The appointment is expected to receive final approval in the Israeli parliament on Monday, the official said. Shortly after the vote, the current defense minister, Amir Peretz, announced his resignation, saying he would step down after next week's parliamentary vote.

Close to 100 Palestinian officials from Fatah crossed into Egypt from the Gaza Strip in the early hours Friday, Egyptian police said. Fleeing aboard a fishing boat on the Mediterranean Sea, 97 senior members of Fatah's security and administrative apparatus arrived in the Egyptian port of El-Arish hours after fighters from Hamas took control of Gaza, an Egyptian security official in El-Arish said.

Israeli officials say Hamas is already arming for the next conflict with Israel, reports Berger. Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said: "There is a very serious problem of the smuggling of weapons and explosives from Sinai (Egypt) into Gaza." Israel says it is watching the situation closely but has no plans to intervene. The Jewish state does, however, plan to release funds to strengthen Fatah moderates in the West Bank, adds Berger.

Hamas announced Friday that it plans to take control of Gaza's crossing with Egypt. The crossing has been closed since the outbreak of fighting earlier this week. Under an Israeli-Palestinian agreement, it was monitored by European observers. It is not clear whether the monitors or Israel would accept such an arrangement. In the past, the crossing was patrolled by Abbas' Presidential Guard, one of the forces defeated in a five-day battle.

Foreign ministers of Arab League countries were to hold a meeting Friday to discuss the situation in the Palestinian territories, officials said on Thursday.