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Posted by Lynette
5/8/2002 (13:27) |
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Crowded Gaza a 'ticking bomb'
'Gaza is a ticking time bomb, and it's going to be a bloodbath,' says Raji Sourani, a prominent Gaza lawyer who runs the Palestinian Center for Human Rights. He says groups like Seif Al Din's militia are the most dangerous. 'They are mushrooming, and they are not controlled. They don't need tanks or mines. These people are more than happy to defend themselves with their skins.'
BEACH CAMP, Gaza — 'You sit here,' commands the masked gunman in camouflage, pointing to a chair. In the room darkened by blackout drapes, the leader of a small militia group spells out his plan: more violent attacks against Israelis. 'Resistance is our main weapon,' says Naser Seif Al Din, 25, who heads one of Gaza's many militant groups. His is called Al-Nasser Salah-e-Din, named for the Arab conqueror of Jerusalem. Four masked militiamen train their Kalashnikov rifles on their visitor as Seif Al Din delivers the group's message. 'We have guns, explosives, anti-tank weapons. We are ready to make more shaheeds (martyrs).' Hidden in a corner of this refugee camp of 70,000 is what may be the most vexing problem facing Palestinian and Israeli officials: how to diffuse the rage that has taken hold across the Palestinian territories since September 2000, when the uprising began.
For the past month, the world has focused on the conflict that has ravaged West Bank towns and killed hundreds of people. Israel waged a military offensive there to destroy bomb factories and hunt down armed militants. Gaza, southwest of the West Bank and bordering Egypt, was cordoned off, stifling activists' efforts to infiltrate Israel.
The West Bank offensive appears to be winding down, but the war is not over. Gaza's militia groups remain virtually intact, 84 miles southwest of Jerusalem. The militant Hamas group in Gaza claimed responsibility for Tuesday night's suicide bombing at a nightclub outside Tel Aviv.
Officials on both sides believe a new front is inevitable, probably soon. They say if that occurs, the explosion in Gaza — home to 1.2 million Palestinians — could be worse than in the West Bank.
Stories of exile, loss
More than two-thirds of Gaza's residents come from families that fled their homes in Israel after Israel declared independence in 1948. Today, the refugee camps have become permanent towns, centers of anti-Israel anger among people reared on stories of exile and loss. Gaza, a 26-mile sliver along the Mediterranean, is densely populated.
'Gaza is a ticking time bomb, and it's going to be a bloodbath,' says Raji Sourani, a prominent Gaza lawyer who runs the Palestinian Center for Human Rights. He says groups like Seif Al Din's militia are the most dangerous. 'They are mushrooming, and they are not controlled. They don't need tanks or mines. These people are more than happy to defend themselves with their skins.'
The proudest achievement for Seif Al Din's militia came early this year when his fighters destroyed an Israeli tank with homemade explosives.
Sealed off by Israel's military blockade, Gaza has become a virtual prison, residents say. Soldiers keep watch from concrete watchtowers and tanks. Two military checkpoints have blocked the only north-south arteries and become the sites of daily battles between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians.
Because tens of thousands of Palestinians have been blocked from getting to jobs in Israel, Gaza has become a beggar territory, heavily dependent on aid. World Bank economists estimate that unemployment will average nearly 65% this year with an average yearly income of about $800, about one-twentieth that of an average resident of Tel Aviv, Israel.
For years, Israel has quietly considered relinquishing Gaza, which it seized from Egypt in the 1967 war. But there now are 19 Jewish settlements of about 6,900 people scattered inside the territory. They are guarded by about 7,000 Israeli soldiers. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has flatly rejected dismantling any settlements, despite a feeling among many Israelis that the zealous settlers in Gaza are not worth the military burden and political costs.
Hemmed into a place of poverty and hopelessness, Gazans learn their militancy from childhood: Street walls bear graffiti urging death to Israelis. Children play with toy machine guns on the streets.
'They will not surprise us'
Muhaned Kullab, 13, says he has learned at school how to treat wounds and fight fires. 'We are not like the West Bank, they will not surprise us here,' boasts the boy. In the kindergarten run by Muhaned's parents, Osama bin Laden's portrait hangs next to a photo collage of the infants attending this session. Last month, Israeli soldiers caught a group of children trying to penetrate a Jewish settlement with ineptly handmade explosives.
Some Israeli officials admit that invading Gaza as they did the West Bank is not just unavoidable, but also wise. 'If Gaza is left alone, it will be very, very dangerous,' says Israel's government spokesman Daniel Seaman.
Gaza could present a tougher problem for Israel than the West Bank.
'We'll fight to the last bullet,' says Jihad Alwazir, 39, Palestinian assistant deputy minister of planning and cooperation.
Militias like Seif Al Din's in March started weekly military training sessions on the beach, according to residents. Muhammed Kullab, 17, little Muhaned's older brother, says he is thrilled he has been chosen for training. With the Mediterranean lapping at their feet, he and his friends have had seven training sessions on loading and firing rifles. Other groups have begun to specialize in explosives, he says.
'Everybody who can fight will fight if Israel invades Gaza,' says Kullab, a tall, athletic high-school senior. He says he hopes to study chemical engineering after graduating from high school next month, 'so I can learn to make bombs that really hurt Israel,' he says.
Kullab's neighbors on Tarek Ben Ziad Street, like many others in the refugee camp, have spent the past weeks erecting sandbag walls which they hope will 'slow down' Israeli tanks, he says.
Armed and distant from the Palestinian power in the West Bank capital of Ramallah, Gaza's militants have little patience for the diplomatic efforts in Washington and Europe. They say they won't settle for less than a total withdrawal by Israeli soldiers and Jewish settlers and an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as the capital.
'The martyr attacks (suicide bombers) have achieved a lot,' says Seif Al Din, sitting in his armed hideout deep inside Beach Camp. 'We have had a breakthrough in destroying Israel's feeling of security. Now they know we will fight them anywhere.'
www.usatoday.com/news/world/2002/05/08/gaza.htm
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