[Ha'aretz] Amos Harel - The combination of Israeli air attacks, a tight economic blockade, and increasing losses among the terror organizations is putting Hamas under considerable pressure. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh may speak of a tahdiya (lull, or quiet), though not a hudna (cease-fire), but Hamas' military wing, headed by Ahmad Jabari, does not accept his leadership. Hamas and Islamic Jihad forces number slightly over 10,000 men at arms. Dozens of gunmen are killed in Gaza every month. Since ten Islamic Jihad militants were killed this week, several of them high up in the organization's military wing, there has been a decrease in rocket fire by Islamic Jihad. The militants fear the Israeli security services have succeeded in infiltrating their ranks and they have gone underground to limit the damage. While Hamas is not launching Kassam rockets, it makes do with firing mortars at IDF bases and Israeli communities adjacent to Gaza. The military wing of Hamas is working on spectacular operations, along the lines of the abduction of IDF Cpl. Gilad Shalit. IDF operations two or three kilometers inside Gazan territory are aimed in part at preventing the excavation of tunnels that would enable terrorists to infiltrate IDF bases or kibbutzim close to the border, with the goal of abducting or killing Israelis. Hamas is indeed less corrupt than Fatah, but unemployment has risen, the possibility of traveling abroad via Egypt has declined dramatically, and Gaza's economic isolation is immeasurably more acute. The economic sanctions affect everything, with the exception of basic staples. Disposable diapers are hard to come by and cigarettes have soared to $15 a pack. Hamas, which controls most of the smuggling tunnels, earned about $25 million last month from taxes on smuggled cigarettes.
2007-12-21 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive