Word: fatah
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Imposing order on the rival gunmen of Hamas and Fatah would have been a tall order for a leader far stronger than Palestinian Interior Minister Hani Kawasmeh. Kawasmeh, a career civil servant rather than a tough-guy commander of either of the two main Palestinian factions, was appointed to the position as a compromise candidate after Hamas and Fatah brokered their unity government in Mecca earlier this year. And it came as no surprise when he announced his resignation on Monday, amid a fierce resurgence of fighting between the two camps that has claimed at least eight lives since Sunday...
...Kawasmeh's failure results in part from the refusal of Fatah hardliners to cede power within the Palestinian Authority to Hamas, despite the fact that the latter won last year's Palestinian parliamentary elections. Even after their leaders agreed to a power sharing arrangement in Mecca last fall, many Fatah officials have done their best to make it fail - perhaps encouraged by the U.S., which has refused to have any relations with a Palestinian government that includes Hamas, and has made isolating the Islamist ruling party a focus of its Middle East policy...
...Hamas has its own hard-liners, who have plenty to gain from the collapse of the unity government. One of the main reasons for sharing power with Fatah - to circumvent the U.S.-led financial siege of the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority - has turned out to be moot. The U.S. and the EU continue to refuse to give direct aid to any Palestinian government with Hamas in it, despite the unity government. A narrower Hamas government would also be in a better position to prevent the already fragile Arab League initiative offering Israel a comprehensive peace agreement in exchange...
...intermittently observed a "truce" with Israel. But on April 25, the militant wing of Hamas announced that it had abandoned the cease-fire. The militants oppose a move by Prime Minister Ismail Haniya, a moderate within Hamas, to form a unity coalition with President Mahmoud Abbas, leader of the Fatah movement, and to take steps toward negotiating with Israel. Now there are signs that armed cells within Hamas are gearing up their assembly line of suicide bombers. As a renegade Hamas military commander says, "We are preparing for the possibility of a third intifadeh...
Until recently, most female suicide bombers were recruited not by Hamas but by Fatah's armed brigades. The fundamentalist leaders of Hamas, on the other hand, have a more protective view of women and at first were reluctant to sacrifice them. But the Riyashi video, broadcast on Hamas' TV station and produced by Hamas (it can be viewed on YouTube), may signal that the group is using Riyashi's martyrdom to advertise for new female volunteers. In Gaza on April 26, four hooded women in military fatigues announced to the press that they were suicide bombers and vowed, "We will...