Sep. 29, 2005 Gazans grow wary of Hamas
By ORLY HALPERN
In Jabalya refugee camp, people hedge at first when asked who was responsible for the explosion that took place at a gun-toting, rocket-flashing Hamas celebration parade Friday.
The "incident," as Palestinians ambiguously refer to it, killed 20 people, mostly children, but few feel comfortable pointing the finger at those who most believe were responsible.
But Fawzi Wadee, who had just returned from the funeral of his son, Muhammad, did not mince his words.
"I’m angry at Hamas,‘ said Wadee, 32, whose 10-year-old child succumbed Tuesday morning to the wounds in his head from three shards of metal. ’Before I supported them. Now I don’t."
Wadee spoke softly but firmly, standing meters away from where neat rows of white plastic chairs were lined on the street under a long, green-colored mourning tent – all courtesy of Hamas. But the unemployed 32-year-old father of four was unimpressed by the gesture from the group that had called his son a "martyr" at the hands of the Israelis.
"When my son was in the hospital, no one came,‘ said Wadee. ’But when he died Hamas came and claimed him as ’their martyr.’ They did it to get money from donors around the world. It’s like a business. But no one gave us money."
As he spoke, a young man came up and whispered to him not to speak to the journalist.
The celebrations and rocket attacks that had, until recently, earned Hamas accolades from Gazans have become a source of resentment, forcing the group to announce on Sunday that they would halt rocket attacks against Israel and honor the cease-fire understandings.
The explosion of a truck with a rocket launcher rigged to it had killed mostly children, like Muhammad and his neighbor, eight-year-old Salameh Yusuf Fayayda, on Friday. Hamas said Israel was behind the explosion, but locals believed that Hamas was at fault.
"Hamas killed my brother," said Kamal Fayayda, Salameh’s brother.
On the other side of Jabalya in the Falluja neighborhood, Palestinian Authority Minister of Detainees and Former Refugees Sufian Abu-Zayda sat on the lawn outside his home twirling his prayer beads and considering what had befallen the only-recently "freed" land.
Abu-Zayda said that Hamas had fired dozens of rockets on Sderot, provoking Israeli retaliation, as a way of taking away attention from the horrors of Jabalya.
"They were trying to preserve their dignity for what was probably a work accident. It cost them their credibility."
Few Palestinians believed Hamas’s claims. Instead, there was a growing resentment toward Hamas among some residents in Gaza for igniting another cycle of violence and spoiling the prospects for peace in the wake of the historic Israeli withdrawal.
"The situation finally became better,‘ said Ameen Nofal, the owner of a stationery shop and a father of five from the Nada neighborhood of northern Gaza. ’Now the problems have returned. It’s all because of the rockets Hamas shot at Israel."
Some Palestinians even spoke of disarming the very men they credited with freeing them from Israeli occupation.
"Our feeling has changed about groups with weapons,‘ Wadee said. ’This time it was our son. Next time it could be someone else’s. We don’t want any more weapons."
The online edition of The Jerusalem Post – JPost.com – provides first class news and analysis about Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world. Whether news about Iran, Gaza, Syria, Fatah, Hamas or Hezbollah, JPost.com covers the burning issues of the Middle East and the Israeli-Arab conflict.
