HAMAS fighters captured the most important security compound in Gaza City yesterday as the fundamentalist movement comprehensively routed Fatah forces loyal to the moderate president, Mahmoud Abbas.
Hamas's capture of the Preventive Security Compound in the Tel al-Hawa area delivered a knockout blow to Fatah and led Hamas to proclaim the start of a new era in the Gaza Strip.
Islam Shahawan, a spokesman for Hamas's Executive Force militia sai
d: "The era of justice and Islamic rule has arrived."
Fourteen people, mostly Fatah fighters were killed and 80 wounded in the clash. At least 25 people were killed throughout the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian reports said that five children, all under 16, were killed by Israeli tank fire in the south of the region. The Israeli army denied its forces had fired in the area.
Hamas also seized a second major Fatah facility in Gaza City, leaving only two remaining fortifications under Fatah control. It took over Fatah's last remaining compound in the southern city of Rafah after defenders ran away, according to a senior police official.
A long-awaited announcement by Mr Abbas outlining his response to Hamas's takeover of the Strip did not materialise by nightfall, adding to a widespread sense that he has failed to show leadership during the crisis.
Aides said he might formalise the emerging split between the West Bank and Gaza by dismissing the unity government between Fatah and Hamas and putting himself in charge of an emergency cabinet. Whatever he does, it will be much too late to reverse the damage to his own and Fatah's standing in Gaza.
There were threats and signs yesterday that revolutionary Islamic justice was being meted out by Hamas. Reports said that several defeated defenders were herded out of the Preventive Security (PS) headquarters in Tel al-Hawa by Hamas militiamen to an uncertain fate. Hamas has described PS personnel as collaborators with Israel.
Fatah officials said Hamas shot and killed seven of its fighters outside the Preventive Security building, while a doctor said he had examined two bodies that had been shot in the head at close range.
Ebullient Hamas fighters touched their foreheads to the ground in prayer and said that the facility, which had been used to interrogate and torture Hamas leaders, would be turned into a college for religious studies and that the neighbourhood would be renamed Tel al-Islam (Hill of Islam)
On the West Bank, Fatah's stunned leadership, whose weakness has been laid bare by the fighting, spoke of a threat to the existence of the "Palestinian national project" by the Hamas takeover of Gaza.
Hamas fighters said that after capturing the PS headquarters they had found files confirming that the agency had been "working for the Zionist enemy and was involved in the assassination of resistance leaders".
Israel was monitoring the developments, with some analysts saying there could be positive effect for Israeli interests. Gidi Grinstein, the head of the Reut Institute in Tel Aviv, said a split between Gaza and the West Bank and the viewing of them as distinct territories would be advantageous to Israel.
"It opens a new spectrum of options," he said. "The creation of Hamas-stan in Gaza and Fatah-land in the West Bank means we can fight Hamas in a more coherent way and deal with Fatah in the West Bank in a more forthcoming way."
He predicted Hamas will be hard pressed to deliver on services to the people of Gaza and could expect even less co-operation from Israel on revenues, exports and movement of goods.
• WATCHING Hamas gunmen celebrating their capture of a key security compound yesterday, Palestinians in the Gaza battle zone voiced fears of deepening economic hardship in a territory run by the extremist group.
"I think Gaza will be sealed off and isolated from the rest of the world. We have been suffering and now will suffer more," said Gaza City resident Hussam Ahmed, 36.
A Hamas supporter in Gaza, who gave his name only as Ali, said he was not frightened by the prospect of more hardship. "What else could happen to us? The world has never recognised Hamas, anyway," he said.
"Gaza is going to become a safer place for Muslims after the defeat of the collaborators. Threats don't scare us."
Khamees al-Degger, 40, watched along with hundreds of others who rushed to the captured Gaza security compound as Hamas gunmen hugged each other and handed out pastries to onlookers. "A new Taleban state is being shaped in Gaza," he said.
