Word: gazans
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...they wouldn't have dropped the one-ton bomb on his Gaza hideout if they had known the result in advance. But given Shehadah's recent achievements, it is clear why Israeli security officials wanted him gone. Palestinian officials and Israeli security sources tell TIME the 49-year-old Gazan had transformed Hamas' terror operations over the past year. From Gaza, Shehadah used e-mail and cell-phone text messages to rebuild West Bank terror cells destroyed by the Israeli operations. According to Israeli intelligence officials, Shehadah recently smuggled about half a dozen highly skilled bombmakers from the Gaza Strip...
While Israel naturally draws the lion's share of Gazan criticism, Arafat and his Authority are not exempt from it. "The Chairman thinks ideologically," says a human-rights worker who, revealingly, does not want to be named. "He is focusing on the basic principle, namely Palestinian independence. He's not interested in day-to-day problems, in infrastructure where we are starting from below zero. The few changes for the better have been trivial, cheap cosmetics. Paving a few roads, some improvement in education and public health--that's it." More trenchant complaints focus on corruption and nepotism...
While residents generally give Arafat's administration low marks for efficiency, the leading Gazan complaint is economic. Responding to the suicide bombings, Israel has limited the number of Palestinian laborers working in Israel to 29,000, down from the normal 100,000 or so at this time of year. The Gaza Strip has been especially hard hit, as it has little local industry. Trade with Israel has also been sharply curtailed. Because of the new strictures, the unemployment rate is at 58% in Gaza, and merchants are starving for business. True, self-rule there has brought some degree of pride...
...current environment in the Gaza Strip has strengthened the appeal of the militants. Palestinians have little, if anything, to show for the achievement of self-rule. The Gazan economy is in ruins. Foreign aid donors refuse to hand over significant funds until Arafat creates a credible system of accounting for the money. Israel, in response to the violence, has limited the number of workers allowed to cross the border daily for work. Just days before the Gaza riots, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak warned that the Gaza Strip would become "a new, tougher Afghanistan" unless economic conditions improved immediately...
...Instead of four- and six-man patrols at the refugee camps, groups of 15 soldiers were put into action. Helicopters and light aircraft were used to detect potential troublemakers. The tactics reflected the military view that an army decision two weeks ago to stop breaking up all demonstrations in Gazan camps had only encouraged the rioters. "We cannot let the Arabs go wild within the camps without interfering, because that has already been interpreted by them as our yielding control," said an Israeli general stationed in the West Bank. "Our main goal is to regain control...