Folk i Gaza tør ikke lenger diskutere politikk. Ambulanser nøler med å rykke ut. De frykter hva ukontrollerte fyrer ved sjekkpointene kan finne på. Alt handler om frykt, og den brukes bevisst av partene for å lamme folks initiativ.

En befolkning som turde å ta stilling kunne bli en faktor i maktkampen. Derfor må folk skremmes til taushet.

Det går ut over vanlige folk. En lege deltok i uteksamineringen av nye medlemmer av Presidentgarden. Hans bror var en av kandidatene og han filmet seremonien. Men legen er medlem av Hamas, og han ble anklaget for å drive spionasje inne i den strengt bevoktede leiren. Derfor ble han fanget, bakbundet, slått og skutt seks ganger gjennom bena. Han vil trenge minst ett år på å bli bra igjen.

En gammel mann på 72 år ble slått helseløs av fire Hamas-medlemmer som ikke likte at han rev ned deres plakater. Det skjedde i kjelleren på en moske.

Palestinerne sier borgerkrigen sliter mer enn konflikten med Israel. Der var skillelinjene klare, man visste hvor man sto. Det gjør man ikke lenger, og folk er nå blitt redde for å diskutere pollitikk. De aner ikke konsekvensene.

Gazans won’t discuss politics anymore, for fear of retribution. Ambulance drivers are reluctant to answer emergency calls because they don’t know which checkpoint they might come across along the way.

«There’s a blanket of fear around the city,» said human rights activist Raji Sourani.

Gazans say seven years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting were much easier to deal with than the yearlong power struggle between the Islamic militant Hamas and the Fatah movement of moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Battle lines were clear in the confrontation with
Israel, and risks more easily calculated than in the internal fighting that has claimed 200 lives in the past year.

Instilling fear in ordinary people is intentional, said Walid al-Awad, a member of the tiny People’s Party who grew up in Lebanon during the civil war there, then moved to Gaza and now tries to mediate between Hamas and Fatah. The combatants want to paralyze civilians and prevent them from «thinking of doing anything against this or that group,» he said.

No one knows where the next bullet will come from.

Last week, Dr. Fayez al-Barrawi, a 29-year old physician at a north Gaza hospital, was attending a graduation ceremony for the newest recruits of the Presidential Guard, an elite force loyal to Abbas. One of al-Barrawi’s brothers was among the graduates, and the doctor, a Hamas supporter, videotaped the event, held at the Presidential Guard’s heavily fortified compound.

Al-Barrawi, who wears a close-cropped beard, often a sign of association with Hamas, said that while filming he was approached by armed men who accused him of spying for Hamas. The doctor said he was dragged away, bundled into a jeep, blindfolded, handcuffed and driven to another location.

There, he was interrogated, beaten, dumped in a field, then shot six times in the legs and one of his kneecaps. Al-Barrawi now lies in a hospital, with metal rods in his legs, and doctors say he might need a year to heal.

Al-Barrawi’s attackers apparently were Fatah gunmen. The Presidential Guard said in a statement it was not involved and that the abduction did not take place during the ceremony, as al-Barrawi claims.

Nimr Bakr, the elderly fisherman, is recovering in another hospital from a severe beating that left him with bruises and a dislocated shoulder.

Bakr, who is from a well-known Fatah family, is a volunteer caretaker at the Kahlil Al Rahman mosque in the Shati refugee camp on the outskirts of Gaza City. He is not a friend of Hamas and routinely tears down Hamas posters in the neighborhood on the way to the mosque.

On Saturday, he was attacked by four men he described as Hamas supporters. He said the assailants dragged him into the basement of the mosque, hooded and handcuffed him, then beat him with chairs, rifle butts and sticks.

Bakr said the attackers acted «as if they found a spy who wants to blow up the mosque.»

Hamas denied involvement in the attack.

Nowhere safe for Gaza residents

bilde: Nimr Bakr er 72 år gammel, men det hindret ikke fire Hamas-medlemmer å dra han ned i kjelleren på en moske og rundjule ham. Bakr hadde fjernet noen Hamas-plakater. All respekt for siviles integritet er i ferd med å forsvinne og folk er redde, på en annen måte enn da israelerne angrep. Nå komer faren innenfra.