The sound of gun fire awakened them. The previous evening there had already heard the sound of guns in the distance. It was time to get out and get out quick. The Israeli’s were putting pressure on the Hamas using Fatah gunmen to attack public buildings. The hurriedly checked out paying in US dollars one of the three currencies accepted in Gaza, the others being Israeli shekels and Jordanian dinars.
The Landcruiser was waiting for them outside, its motor running and ready to go. Slimane told them they just had time to get to the Egyptian border crossing which was still open.
He told them that factional gun battles broke out in the southern Gaza town of Rafah the previous evening after the funeral of a slain Hamas man.
‘Are you sure we can cross there?’
‘I hope so!’ He did not sound too sure.
‘How long does it take?’
‘To cross into Egypt?’
‘No to get to the border!’
‘Not long, depends on the road blocks, maybe half an hour.’
‘Let’s get going then.’
‘The border crossing is open?’
‘It was half an hour ago.’
‘Let’s get going!’
The sun was just coming up as their bags were quickly loaded into the Toyota, the climbed in set off immediately to the south by the coast road. Practically all roads in Gaza ran from north to south or east to west. At Peat Sade they turned left inland, skirting around Rafah to join the main road near to Gaza’s disused Dahaniyeh International Airport, forcibly closed down by the Israelis.
Suddenly the Toyota was shaken as two F-16s roared over the road at very low level. The driver pulled up in the shelter of an abandoned building and waited, a few moments later they heard the sound of propeller driven aircraft. ‘Drones’, Slimane informed them.
New fighting between the Fatah and the Hamas had broken out as the rhetoric between Abbas and Haniyeh had become heated. The national unity government had been specifically formed to prevent internal fighting.
The objective of the two Palestinian leaders was not a peace agreement with Israel but the establishment of a single state within the borders of pre-1948 Palestine, the return of refugees, with an Arab-Muslim majority and an end to the Jewish state.
When the British left in 1948, the Israelis were attacked by a united Arab force, which it pushed back to the former Mandate boundaries that became the ceasefire lines. The West Bank and the Gaza Strip remained outside of Israeli territory. In the wars that followed Israel took control of the West Bank and Gaza, as well as the Golan Heights and the Sinai Peninsula. The latter was returned to Egypt when the peace treaty between the two countries was signed in the early 1980s, and the international border between the two countries was recognised. Then Jordan signed a peace treaty with Israel, and the River Jordan and the Dead Sea formed the border between the two countries to the north with a land border running directly south to the Gulf of Aqaba. In 2005 Israel withdrew from Gaza. As to the 1967 borders it is unthinkable for Israel to withdraw or return East Jerusalem to the Palestinians.
On leaving Gaza city they passed two or three dead bodies, signs of the night’s violence, and gunmen stood in doorways. Slimane did not need to tell the driver to drive carefully so as avoid attracting attention.
Ahead was a road block, a chicane with large concrete blocks. The stopped and a Palestinian approached, his head covered by the black and white chequered keffiyeh, he looked not more than about twenty years old. He walked around to the passenger side, offered his hand to Slimane who spoke to him quickly in Arabic. The Palestinian looked at the passengers, then with a sharp swinging movement of his Kalashnikov he waved them on.
‘We’re lucky,’ said Slimane, ‘a cousin of mine.’
It was unwise to show any signs linking the passengers with the Fatah or the press especially with a BBC correspondent being held somewhere in the south of the Strip.
The Press sticker had been removed and the driver fixed a green Hamas flag in his window, it worked they were waved through at makeshift Hamas checkpoints.
The fighting between the Hamas and Fatah supporters was becoming more and more serious by the hour, the radio announced dozens of dead and worse whilst during the night Israeli air strikes on Hamas facilities in Gaza killed five people and destroying the building belonging to the Executive Force, responsible for security in Gaza. The latest news spoke of Israeli tanks were poised to move into Gaza.
The Hamas had been elected democratically ousting the corrupt Fatah government and its supporters, who under Arafat had shown off their wealth building ostentatious villas under the noses of their desperate compatriots. The reward for democracy was rejection by Europe and America. Now, the Hamas were taking their revenge as the Fatah was ejected, humiliated, beaten and even executed.
Since Rafah was the target of frequent Israeli raids, in retaliation from attacks by Palestinian fighters planting roadside bombs and firing anti-tank grenades, they were ordered to don their flak jackets and helmets. The road was filled with dangers not only the gunmen of the warring factions but there was the risk of Israeli airs strikes and random firing by Israeli army to warn off those trying to trying to approach the border.
They realised just how small the Gaza Strip was and how desperate its population had become after years of economic crises, unemployment, its utilities destroyed or in serious need of repair, its administrative structure in chaos and its business at a standstill and all cross frontier employment halted indefinitely. Any hope of an improvement following Israel’s withdrawal had disappeared with the election of the Hamas.
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Fighting Breaks Out
The Legacy of Solomon Page 73