Gaza anxious over fragile truce

By Alan Johnston
BBC News, Gaza

Outside a mosque in southern Gaza, a group of masked gunmen moved in for the kill - and opened fire.

The streets of Gaza have gone quiet after days of violence

They shot dead Hussein Ashurbasi, a commander in the military wing of Hamas.

Just 12 hours earlier the killing in Gaza was meant to have stopped. A ceasefire had come into force that was supposed to end four days of clashes between Hamas and Fatah supporters that had left more than 30 people dead.

Hamas blamed Mr Ashurbasi's death on elements in the security forces linked to Fatah, and described his killing as a grave violation of the truce.

A Fatah spokesman vigorously denied that his faction was responsible, and he suggested that the shooting may have been the result of some sort of personal vendetta.

Whatever the truth, the tensions and the allegations that surrounded the killing revealed how fragile the ceasefire is.

But as night fell it was largely holding.

And most people were still able to hope that this latest wave of factional violence was at an end.

Shocking scenes

The vast majority of Gazans have been frightened by the dangers in the streets around them, and appalled by the spectacle of Palestinians killing Palestinians.

Nobody knows how the fighting started... so it may just start again at any moment Riyadh al-Adassa

"I hope it's going to hold," hospital worker Riyadh al-Adassa said of the truce. "I feel a bit relieved, but I'm so anxious at the same time."

He believed the violence might break out again.

"Nobody knows how it started in the first place - so it may just start again at any moment. This shouldn't be happening. The casualties are our young men."

Echoing a view that you hear again and again on Gaza's streets, Mr Adassa said that Palestinian weapons should be directed at the forces of the Israeli occupation, and not at fellow Palestinians.

As a medic Mr Adassa saw many casualties of the violence.

But he was particularly saddened by the case of a 12-year-old girl called Maher, who had been hit in the stomach by a stray bullet while she was on the roof of her family home.

"Everything about her was shocking - and imagine, this was one of God knows how many stories," said Mr Adassa.

Fatah 'committed'

Almost everybody seems shaken by the ferocity of the violence.

Fatah and Hamas have ordered their gunmen off the streets

"What happened in the last five days was scary - to me and every Palestinian," said Ahmad Yusef, a senior advisor to the Hamas Prime Minister Ismael Haniyah.

Mr Yusuf says he remains sure that Gaza will not descend into civil war. But he conceded that there could be skirmishes on a scale more bloody than he would ever have imagined before.

Mr Yusuf said that there could be no guarantee that there would not be more violence. But he said he was encouraged by the mediatory role now being played by both Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

One of Fatah's leaders, Maher Mekdad, promised that his faction was committed to the truce.

"Despite all the bitterness and sadness we are feeling, we will work to make it succeed," he said.

Mediation

And perhaps it will succeed.

Both factions will have been exhausted by the days of tension. And both of them will know that the great weight of public opinion is against any continuation of the bloodletting.

At the same time the international pressure for a halt to the violence has increased.

When he invited Hamas and Fatah to talks in Mecca, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia described the fighting as a disgrace that was tarnishing the image of Palestinians.

But the ideological, personal and political differences between the factions are profound.

They are very badly divided on the only question that really matters to Palestinians - how best to confront Israel and its occupation.

Efforts to bring their positions together and form a government of national unity have failed repeatedly.

And as long as their divisions and bitter rivalry persist, there is every danger that the tension will spill over into more violence in the streets of Gaza.