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| Hamas Emerges Buoyant Despite Bloodshed and Devastation in Gaza | Hamas Emerges Buoyant Despite Bloodshed and Devastation in Gaza |
| (about 4 hours later) | |
| BEIT HANOUN, Gaza Strip — Ismail Haniya, the top Hamas leader in Gaza, worked the crowd in what used to be the Boura neighborhood of this battered northern border town, kissing the cheeks of elders and the foreheads of masked fighters. He waved at the women standing in front of makeshift huts next to the homes flattened in Israeli attacks, as children watched from atop concrete piles where green Hamas flags were planted as though on conquered lands. | |
| “These buildings were the gates to the victory,” Mr. Haniya told one resident during the tour Tuesday afternoon. | |
| More than a week after an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire agreement halted 50 days of fighting between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza, little has changed on the ground. Electricity is still scarce, residents have to line up to collect clean water, and there is no word when the promised materials for reconstruction might arrive, in what quantities and under whose supervision. | More than a week after an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire agreement halted 50 days of fighting between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza, little has changed on the ground. Electricity is still scarce, residents have to line up to collect clean water, and there is no word when the promised materials for reconstruction might arrive, in what quantities and under whose supervision. |
| But Hamas, the militant Islamist faction that ruled Gaza for seven years and led the battle against Israel, has already handed out more than $40 million in $2,000 payments to each family whose home was hit, according to Mousa Abu Marzook, a Hamas official based in Cairo who accompanied Mr. Haniya on the tour. Having relinquished official control of Gaza’s ministries in June to a new Palestinian government that has yet to take hold here — a picture of Mr. Haniya, a former prime minister, still hangs in the office of the education chief — Hamas paradoxically seems to be politically in its strongest position in years. | |
| Polls show an unprecedented spike in popular support because of the war without, so far, people blaming Hamas for the devastation left behind. Leaders spent the last days doing victory laps, meeting with families of the fallen and touring the wreckage. In separate interviews, they repeatedly shrugged off questions about what happens next, saying “let’s wait and see” as if in a refrain. | |
| “This is the responsibility of Mahmoud Abbas because now he is responsible for the government,” said Mahmoud al-Zahar, referring to the president of the Palestinian Authority and leader of the rival Fatah faction. “We are not responsible.” | |
| Ziad el-Zaza, the former deputy prime minister and finance minister, said Hamas “would not be blamed because Hamas leaders were in the front lines and they suffered losses” — his own four-story house was leveled — and because “those who offered relief to the people are also Hamas, those who go and comfort people are Hamas.” | Ziad el-Zaza, the former deputy prime minister and finance minister, said Hamas “would not be blamed because Hamas leaders were in the front lines and they suffered losses” — his own four-story house was leveled — and because “those who offered relief to the people are also Hamas, those who go and comfort people are Hamas.” |
| Hamas remains relatively isolated in the region, its stores of rockets have been badly depleted, and the cease-fire failed to meet its repeated demands for a full lifting of Israeli restrictions on travel and trade, so the honeymoon may not last. The more time that passes without real change in Gaza’s conditions, analysts said, the more residents are likely to blame Hamas for the 2,100 lives lost and the vast destruction across the coastal territory. | Hamas remains relatively isolated in the region, its stores of rockets have been badly depleted, and the cease-fire failed to meet its repeated demands for a full lifting of Israeli restrictions on travel and trade, so the honeymoon may not last. The more time that passes without real change in Gaza’s conditions, analysts said, the more residents are likely to blame Hamas for the 2,100 lives lost and the vast destruction across the coastal territory. |
| “The enemies of Hamas are stupid enough to take part of the burden off Hamas,” said Omar Shaban, a Gaza-based economist and former political candidate. “I’m independent. I’m not Hamas; I’m not Fatah. Now I’m 100 percent it’s Abbas who is at fault. He didn’t come to Gaza. I didn’t hear anything from him.” | |
| Even the Gaza-based minister of public works expressed frustration with Mr. Abbas after a meeting on Wednesday in the destroyed neighborhood of Shejaiya. | |
| “Hamas is functioning; they gave the people $2,000,” complained the minister, Mofeed M. Al Hassina. “The money gives you the power, gives you everything. They’re stronger than us as a government.” | |
| Israel insists that Hamas was hit hard, that it destroyed more than 30 tunnels that penetrated Israel, and that Gaza militias retain at most 3,000 rockets, a third of what they started the summer with. Airstrikes killed three top Hamas commanders along with hundreds of fighters, though the fate of Mohammed Deif, the head of Hamas’s Qassam Brigades, remains unknown. (Mr. Abu Marzook and Mr. Zahar both said they had met with him but offered no proof that he is alive.) | |
| Mr. Haniya’s niece was killed and his home destroyed. Mr. Zahar was taking meetings under a tree next to a stack of furniture recovered from his bombed-out house. | Mr. Haniya’s niece was killed and his home destroyed. Mr. Zahar was taking meetings under a tree next to a stack of furniture recovered from his bombed-out house. |
| Hamas, founded in 1987 as the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood and considered a terrorist group by the United States and Europe, reconciled in April with Mr. Abbas’s Palestine Liberation Organization out of what many experts saw as desperation. The movement had lost crucial political and economic backing from Iran, Syria and, especially, Egypt after the ousting of President Mohamed Morsi, a former Brotherhood leader, last summer. Its government employees had not been paid in months. | Hamas, founded in 1987 as the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood and considered a terrorist group by the United States and Europe, reconciled in April with Mr. Abbas’s Palestine Liberation Organization out of what many experts saw as desperation. The movement had lost crucial political and economic backing from Iran, Syria and, especially, Egypt after the ousting of President Mohamed Morsi, a former Brotherhood leader, last summer. Its government employees had not been paid in months. |
| But it stunned Israel and the world with its military muscle, killing 65 Israeli soldiers and landing a rocket close enough to Ben-Gurion International Airport to halt most flights for 36 hours. | But it stunned Israel and the world with its military muscle, killing 65 Israeli soldiers and landing a rocket close enough to Ben-Gurion International Airport to halt most flights for 36 hours. |
| “Something strategic happened in this battle,” Mr. Abu Marzook said. “It caused the Palestinians to feel that there is a possibility to make victory over Israelis with their own force, not by the Arabs’ help. Those who had the intention to neutralize Hamas, either in its political influence inside Palestine or on the level of the region, they did not achieve what they want. Many of them will rethink how to deal with Hamas.” | “Something strategic happened in this battle,” Mr. Abu Marzook said. “It caused the Palestinians to feel that there is a possibility to make victory over Israelis with their own force, not by the Arabs’ help. Those who had the intention to neutralize Hamas, either in its political influence inside Palestine or on the level of the region, they did not achieve what they want. Many of them will rethink how to deal with Hamas.” |
| In a poll conducted last week, the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research found the largest shift in favor of Hamas since 2006, when it won legislative elections. Nearly 80 percent of the 1,270 people surveyed said Hamas had won the war, and a majority of 53 percent now see armed confrontation as the best path to a Palestinian state. | |
| “When the strong doesn’t make victory, he is defeated, and when the weak is not defeated, then he won,” said Hamza Ismail Abu Shanab, an analyst and the son of a senior Hamas member killed by Israel in 2003. | |
| The poll, which has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points , found for the first time in eight years that Mr. Haniya would defeat Mr. Abbas in a presidential election, with even stronger support in the West Bank than in Gaza. | |
| Mr. Abbas was careful to praise the “Palestinian resistance” during the fighting, but since the cease-fire has, according to Arab news reports, criticized Hamas for prolonging the hostilities, running a shadow government in Gaza, and accused it of plotting a coup against him in the West Bank. Hamas leaders in Gaza were dismissive of Mr. Abbas and his new diplomatic initiative demanding a three-year deadline for ending Israel’s occupation, renewing doubts about the durability of their reconciliation. | Mr. Abbas was careful to praise the “Palestinian resistance” during the fighting, but since the cease-fire has, according to Arab news reports, criticized Hamas for prolonging the hostilities, running a shadow government in Gaza, and accused it of plotting a coup against him in the West Bank. Hamas leaders in Gaza were dismissive of Mr. Abbas and his new diplomatic initiative demanding a three-year deadline for ending Israel’s occupation, renewing doubts about the durability of their reconciliation. |
| “It was not a surprise, it’s not a program, it’s not a project,” Mr. el-Zaza said. “It’s a process of postponing everything for another three years.” | |
| Mr. Haniya, 51, left his prime minister’s post when the new government took over, but still has its trappings. He toured Beit Hanoun in a motorcade, two green pickups loaded with armed fighters among a dozen vehicles trailing his white Pajero jeep, whose windshield flashed red and blue police lights. | Mr. Haniya, 51, left his prime minister’s post when the new government took over, but still has its trappings. He toured Beit Hanoun in a motorcade, two green pickups loaded with armed fighters among a dozen vehicles trailing his white Pajero jeep, whose windshield flashed red and blue police lights. |
| He walked arm in arm with Mr. Abu Marzook into Boura, where the Beit Hanoun mayor pointed out the border with Israel and spoke of taking over the town of Sderot beyond it. When some residents called out, “This is a disaster area,” or “We need water,” they were shushed by neighbors. | He walked arm in arm with Mr. Abu Marzook into Boura, where the Beit Hanoun mayor pointed out the border with Israel and spoke of taking over the town of Sderot beyond it. When some residents called out, “This is a disaster area,” or “We need water,” they were shushed by neighbors. |
| On Al Owda Street, young men snapped pictures on their smartphones as Mr. Haniya held up two fingers in a victory sign. After visiting the Hamad family, six members of which were killed in a drone strike, he emerged with his arm draped across the shoulder of 11-year-old Amir, calling Israel’s assault “the new Naziism” and challenging Washington’s support for Israel’s “right to defend itself.” | On Al Owda Street, young men snapped pictures on their smartphones as Mr. Haniya held up two fingers in a victory sign. After visiting the Hamad family, six members of which were killed in a drone strike, he emerged with his arm draped across the shoulder of 11-year-old Amir, calling Israel’s assault “the new Naziism” and challenging Washington’s support for Israel’s “right to defend itself.” |
| “This is defense?” he demanded of a reporter. “Do you see it in his eyes? He lost his parents and his two uncles and his grandmother.” | “This is defense?” he demanded of a reporter. “Do you see it in his eyes? He lost his parents and his two uncles and his grandmother.” |
| Earlier, Mr. Haniya had thanked Sadiya Nasser, whose son and two grandsons were among slain Qassam fighters, for her sacrifice. Ms. Nasser thanked him, saying, “We hope the next victory will be in Jerusalem.” |