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The battle within
By Avi Issacharoff
RAMALLAH - Sufian Abu Zeida's blue eyes are tired and lifeless. He cannot get the battle in the Jabalya refugee camp in Gaza last Thursday out of his head. Hamas militants killed his neighbor and fellow Fatah member Mohammed Gharib, head of Preventive Security in the Gaza Strip, in a raid on his home. The same force also blew up Abu Zeida's home. After a week of battles in Gaza, the likelihood of peace with the Israelis appears greater than reconciliation with his neighbors in Hamas.
"Our future is black," Abu Zeida, a senior Fatah official and former Palestinian Authority cabinet minister, told Haaretz this week in an interview in Ramallah. "We have no way out. In one day my world turned upside down. My wife and children no longer sleep at home, I don't know if I'll ever be able to return to my work. Mohammed Gharib had been my friend since childhood, he was in the class below me in school. But I tell myself I can't complain - compared to Mohammed, I'm fortunate. All they did was blow up my house. The Hamas activists executed him with smiles, with pleasure. They laughed and joked among themselves and then shot him to death. Afterwards they tied up his nephew and held him for several hours, a boy of 16. At one point he asked for water. They returned a few minutes later with a suspicious-looking liquid and the boy understood that he shouldn't drink it. Then they poured it on his hands. Do you know what it was? Acid. Do you understand the depths of the hatred?" Abu Zeida asked.
"Who would have believed," asks his friend Salim Abu Safiya, a senior Fatah official and the head of border crossings for the PA, "that of all people Hamas would try to kill Sufian, who is so well known for his nationalist struggle. Allah and I rescued him from death," he says. That day the father of a mutual friend, businessman Ihab al-Ashkar, died after a long battle with cancer.
"I told Sufian he had to come with me that afternoon to pay a condolence call, because it's not safe to be on the streets after dark. He agreed. We went to Ihab's house. As soon as we arrived we heard about the fighting," Abu Safiya related.
"My wife called and said there was shooting and that I shouldn't come home," Abu Zeida picks up the story. "She was under fire for six hours, she hid on the floor," he continued. "In the end they burst into the house. They wanted to kidnap my son, but the neighbors came and demanded that they leave him alone. Afterward, they put a bomb in the house that I'm building and blew it up."
"You have to understand," Abu Safiya said, "The people who wanted to kill Sufian are 18, maybe 20 years old, whereas he was in prison for 12 years. Who behaves like that? Even the Israelis who arrest a suicide bomber treat him with respect compared to what Hamas did to Gharib."
Barzilai
Five Palestinians, all Fatah members, are hospitalized at Ashkelon's Barzilai Medical Center. Four have leg injuries. The fifth is in intensive care, in a coma. The Hamas men who attacked Gharib's house were responsible. The fifth was inside the house at the time. The victims' descriptions resemble those of Third World executions.
"At about 3 P.M. on Wednesday [January 3 - A.I.], a car carrying three of Mohammed Gharib's bodyguards was stopped by a Hamas Executive Force roadblock," A., one of the wounded, related in a telephone interview to Haaretz. "They wanted to arrest one of the passengers but they resisted. One escaped, the second was caught and the third was shot when he tried to flee and then arrested. In response, relatives of ours [the Gharib family - A.I.] abducted a member of the Executive Force in a counter-operation, and then men from the Popular Front stepped in to mediate. The abductees from both sides were released, and we thought the whole affair was behind us," A. said. He is breathing heavily. A. was scheduled to undergo another operation on his wounded legs yesterday.
"But the next day the battles erupted again," A. continues. "At 2 P.M. a van carrying Executive Force militants pulled up next to our home. They fired at the building and the guards returned fire." One of the Hamas men was killed, and the response was not long in coming. "They called in dozens of armed men to the site," A. says. "Not only from Jabalya but from Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahia and other places. In less than an hour there were about 100 gunmen surrounding the house. Hamas militants began setting up roadblocks all over the northern Gaza Strip and in Gaza City to prevent the arrival of reinforcements from Fatah or from the Preventive Security forces. First, they surrounded the family's two houses, then the nearby homes, and then they started isolating the entire arena - the neighborhood. At about 3 P.M. the massive firing at the houses began."
According to R., another survivor of the attack, "they fired about 50 RPG missiles [shoulder-launched rockets] at the big house, and then they started on the small house. Mohammed Gharib hid in the small house. They fired about 20 missiles at it. We couldn't see or breathe. The entire room was full of smoke and fire. We kept trying to call for help, but they blocked us, kept anyone from reaching the area, even ambulances."
G., a member of Gharib's family, joined one of the processions of unarmed civilians that was organized in an attempt to create a human barrier between the Hamas gunmen and the house. When the gunmen opened fire at the marchers, wounding dozens, he managed to escape into the surrounded building. "I went in and went upstairs, where everyone was. There were about 50 people there, in two rooms. The firing continued, and after each explosion another part of the wall or the ceiling fell," G. related.
"At the same time negotiations for surrender to the Hamas men began," G. continued. "We didn't believe they would let us surrender without harming us but they swore on the Koran and on Allah. They demanded that we go out with our hands up, in groups of five. I was together with Mohammed Gharib in the first group of five. We came out, with our hands up like they wanted, to the roof, where several of them were waiting, masked and armed. They tied up everyone and hit us. They shouted that they were from Iz al-Din al-Qassam [the Hamas military wing], that would never be defeated. One got a phone call; he answered and then hung up. 'Where is Mohammed Gharib?' he asked. Gharib stood up and said: 'That's me. Do what you want with me, just leave the shabab [young people] alone.' They asked everyone to remove our jackets, to make sure we were unarmed, and then three of them pushed Gharib into the wall and shot him in the legs, before our eyes.
"We thought they would stop shooting, since presenting him as a captive could be considered an achievement for them," G. continued. "But the three went away and three more came. They approached Gharib and shot him in the legs again. He shouted, 'I haven't done anything to you, I've never harmed anyone,' and then he began to recite the Shahada [the Muslim confession of faith, "There is no god but Allah and Mohammed is his prophet," which is recited before death - A.I.]. The ritual was repeated a third time: Another group approached Gharib and shot at his legs," G. continued. "At this point he was still alive. They took Thar, the teenaged nephew who used to escort him around, sat him next to his Uncle Mohammed, who was still conscious, and shot Thar dead."
"The Hamas militants didn't let up," G. said. "They insulted Gharib, laughing and joking among themselves. 'Aren't you ashamed to say the Shahada? You're a heretic, shame on you.' They didn't look angry or hateful, simply bored. Gharib was slowly dying, after they had fired dozens of bullets into his legs. But in the end they shot him in the head and the back and killed him. Afterward they asked for Khaled Gharib, and took him too and shot him, too. But he lived, and now he's in intensive care," G. concluded.
At that point, the other occupants of the house began to surrender as well. The gunmen waited for them outside, and each young man who emerged was shot in the knees. Some were taken for a "walk" in Gaza City and then thrown, bleeding, into the street. Two Fatah men - Hussein Abu Khalil and Ihab Al-Mabhouh - were killed in the course of the battle. After the fact it turned out that one of the Hamas gunmen who shot Ihab was his brother. Both were masked and were unaware that they were shooting at one another.
Fatah returns
A few days after the incident in Jabalya, Fatah held the largest rally in its history, in Gaza City. In many ways the assault on Gharib's house backfired on Hamas. Perhaps the aggressive message got through, but the shocking images from the house that was raided, and above all the interview with Gharib, broadcast live on Palestinian television just minutes before his death, with missiles exploding in the background, provoked strong criticism of Hamas.
There is a sense on the street that the Islamic organization which always drew its strength from the grassroots is abandoning it to focus on its faithful supporters only. Hamas may have decided that this is a culture war that cannot be resolved by peaceful means.
"About a quarter of a million people attended the rally," Abu Zeida and Abu Safiya claim. "Not all were Fatah members, on the contrary. Many were ordinary civilians who have reached the conclusion that they are fed up. The attack made people realize they are all in danger of death; today it's Gharib, tomorrow it's me. The cruelty overflowed into inhumane behavior, and Gazans understand that. Nobody can agree to remain silent after such a crime, to applaud Hamas and to speak again about national unity." "There are two policy paths, and only one can survive," Abu Safiya says. "A solution? There's none on the horizon."
By Avi Issacharoff
RAMALLAH - Sufian Abu Zeida's blue eyes are tired and lifeless. He cannot get the battle in the Jabalya refugee camp in Gaza last Thursday out of his head. Hamas militants killed his neighbor and fellow Fatah member Mohammed Gharib, head of Preventive Security in the Gaza Strip, in a raid on his home. The same force also blew up Abu Zeida's home. After a week of battles in Gaza, the likelihood of peace with the Israelis appears greater than reconciliation with his neighbors in Hamas.
"Our future is black," Abu Zeida, a senior Fatah official and former Palestinian Authority cabinet minister, told Haaretz this week in an interview in Ramallah. "We have no way out. In one day my world turned upside down. My wife and children no longer sleep at home, I don't know if I'll ever be able to return to my work. Mohammed Gharib had been my friend since childhood, he was in the class below me in school. But I tell myself I can't complain - compared to Mohammed, I'm fortunate. All they did was blow up my house. The Hamas activists executed him with smiles, with pleasure. They laughed and joked among themselves and then shot him to death. Afterwards they tied up his nephew and held him for several hours, a boy of 16. At one point he asked for water. They returned a few minutes later with a suspicious-looking liquid and the boy understood that he shouldn't drink it. Then they poured it on his hands. Do you know what it was? Acid. Do you understand the depths of the hatred?" Abu Zeida asked.
"Who would have believed," asks his friend Salim Abu Safiya, a senior Fatah official and the head of border crossings for the PA, "that of all people Hamas would try to kill Sufian, who is so well known for his nationalist struggle. Allah and I rescued him from death," he says. That day the father of a mutual friend, businessman Ihab al-Ashkar, died after a long battle with cancer.
"I told Sufian he had to come with me that afternoon to pay a condolence call, because it's not safe to be on the streets after dark. He agreed. We went to Ihab's house. As soon as we arrived we heard about the fighting," Abu Safiya related.
"My wife called and said there was shooting and that I shouldn't come home," Abu Zeida picks up the story. "She was under fire for six hours, she hid on the floor," he continued. "In the end they burst into the house. They wanted to kidnap my son, but the neighbors came and demanded that they leave him alone. Afterward, they put a bomb in the house that I'm building and blew it up."
"You have to understand," Abu Safiya said, "The people who wanted to kill Sufian are 18, maybe 20 years old, whereas he was in prison for 12 years. Who behaves like that? Even the Israelis who arrest a suicide bomber treat him with respect compared to what Hamas did to Gharib."
Barzilai
Five Palestinians, all Fatah members, are hospitalized at Ashkelon's Barzilai Medical Center. Four have leg injuries. The fifth is in intensive care, in a coma. The Hamas men who attacked Gharib's house were responsible. The fifth was inside the house at the time. The victims' descriptions resemble those of Third World executions.
"At about 3 P.M. on Wednesday [January 3 - A.I.], a car carrying three of Mohammed Gharib's bodyguards was stopped by a Hamas Executive Force roadblock," A., one of the wounded, related in a telephone interview to Haaretz. "They wanted to arrest one of the passengers but they resisted. One escaped, the second was caught and the third was shot when he tried to flee and then arrested. In response, relatives of ours [the Gharib family - A.I.] abducted a member of the Executive Force in a counter-operation, and then men from the Popular Front stepped in to mediate. The abductees from both sides were released, and we thought the whole affair was behind us," A. said. He is breathing heavily. A. was scheduled to undergo another operation on his wounded legs yesterday.
"But the next day the battles erupted again," A. continues. "At 2 P.M. a van carrying Executive Force militants pulled up next to our home. They fired at the building and the guards returned fire." One of the Hamas men was killed, and the response was not long in coming. "They called in dozens of armed men to the site," A. says. "Not only from Jabalya but from Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahia and other places. In less than an hour there were about 100 gunmen surrounding the house. Hamas militants began setting up roadblocks all over the northern Gaza Strip and in Gaza City to prevent the arrival of reinforcements from Fatah or from the Preventive Security forces. First, they surrounded the family's two houses, then the nearby homes, and then they started isolating the entire arena - the neighborhood. At about 3 P.M. the massive firing at the houses began."
According to R., another survivor of the attack, "they fired about 50 RPG missiles [shoulder-launched rockets] at the big house, and then they started on the small house. Mohammed Gharib hid in the small house. They fired about 20 missiles at it. We couldn't see or breathe. The entire room was full of smoke and fire. We kept trying to call for help, but they blocked us, kept anyone from reaching the area, even ambulances."
G., a member of Gharib's family, joined one of the processions of unarmed civilians that was organized in an attempt to create a human barrier between the Hamas gunmen and the house. When the gunmen opened fire at the marchers, wounding dozens, he managed to escape into the surrounded building. "I went in and went upstairs, where everyone was. There were about 50 people there, in two rooms. The firing continued, and after each explosion another part of the wall or the ceiling fell," G. related.
"At the same time negotiations for surrender to the Hamas men began," G. continued. "We didn't believe they would let us surrender without harming us but they swore on the Koran and on Allah. They demanded that we go out with our hands up, in groups of five. I was together with Mohammed Gharib in the first group of five. We came out, with our hands up like they wanted, to the roof, where several of them were waiting, masked and armed. They tied up everyone and hit us. They shouted that they were from Iz al-Din al-Qassam [the Hamas military wing], that would never be defeated. One got a phone call; he answered and then hung up. 'Where is Mohammed Gharib?' he asked. Gharib stood up and said: 'That's me. Do what you want with me, just leave the shabab [young people] alone.' They asked everyone to remove our jackets, to make sure we were unarmed, and then three of them pushed Gharib into the wall and shot him in the legs, before our eyes.
"We thought they would stop shooting, since presenting him as a captive could be considered an achievement for them," G. continued. "But the three went away and three more came. They approached Gharib and shot him in the legs again. He shouted, 'I haven't done anything to you, I've never harmed anyone,' and then he began to recite the Shahada [the Muslim confession of faith, "There is no god but Allah and Mohammed is his prophet," which is recited before death - A.I.]. The ritual was repeated a third time: Another group approached Gharib and shot at his legs," G. continued. "At this point he was still alive. They took Thar, the teenaged nephew who used to escort him around, sat him next to his Uncle Mohammed, who was still conscious, and shot Thar dead."
"The Hamas militants didn't let up," G. said. "They insulted Gharib, laughing and joking among themselves. 'Aren't you ashamed to say the Shahada? You're a heretic, shame on you.' They didn't look angry or hateful, simply bored. Gharib was slowly dying, after they had fired dozens of bullets into his legs. But in the end they shot him in the head and the back and killed him. Afterward they asked for Khaled Gharib, and took him too and shot him, too. But he lived, and now he's in intensive care," G. concluded.
At that point, the other occupants of the house began to surrender as well. The gunmen waited for them outside, and each young man who emerged was shot in the knees. Some were taken for a "walk" in Gaza City and then thrown, bleeding, into the street. Two Fatah men - Hussein Abu Khalil and Ihab Al-Mabhouh - were killed in the course of the battle. After the fact it turned out that one of the Hamas gunmen who shot Ihab was his brother. Both were masked and were unaware that they were shooting at one another.
Fatah returns
A few days after the incident in Jabalya, Fatah held the largest rally in its history, in Gaza City. In many ways the assault on Gharib's house backfired on Hamas. Perhaps the aggressive message got through, but the shocking images from the house that was raided, and above all the interview with Gharib, broadcast live on Palestinian television just minutes before his death, with missiles exploding in the background, provoked strong criticism of Hamas.
There is a sense on the street that the Islamic organization which always drew its strength from the grassroots is abandoning it to focus on its faithful supporters only. Hamas may have decided that this is a culture war that cannot be resolved by peaceful means.
"About a quarter of a million people attended the rally," Abu Zeida and Abu Safiya claim. "Not all were Fatah members, on the contrary. Many were ordinary civilians who have reached the conclusion that they are fed up. The attack made people realize they are all in danger of death; today it's Gharib, tomorrow it's me. The cruelty overflowed into inhumane behavior, and Gazans understand that. Nobody can agree to remain silent after such a crime, to applaud Hamas and to speak again about national unity." "There are two policy paths, and only one can survive," Abu Safiya says. "A solution? There's none on the horizon."
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