Hamas entrenched; frustration grows

By KARIN LAUB and FARES AKRAM / Associated Press

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Transcribed from the clipping

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Emad Firi is angry. During last summer’s Israel-Hamas war, a shell slammed through the roof of his house and shredded his right leg. Unable to work, Firi’s son now drives his taxi but the family struggles to survive. The 50-year-old blames Israel, but also the Islamic militant group Hamas which has ruled Gaza since a violent takeover in 2007.

In the Hamas era, the tiny territory has endured three wars with Israel and a crippling Israeli-Egyptian border blockade that keeps most of its 1.8 million residents trapped. “Who is not angry about this difficult situation?” Firi said, waiting at a rehabilitation clinic to finally to be fitted with an artificial leg.

But the people of Gaza won’t rise up — some out of fear, he said. “If I say two words, I may go to prison,” he says, as Hamas has little tolerance for dissent and often detains critics. “So we stay silent.”

A year after the most destructive war in Gaza yet, Hamas remains in control — despite signs of mounting frustration and a poll indicating half the residents would emigrate if borders were open.

No alternative to Hamas rule has emerged, after deep-seated rivalries between Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas derailed attempts to set up a unity government in both the West Bank and Gaza. Hamas can also rely on unwavering support from about one-third of the population, polls indicate.

At the same time, Israel and Egypt have signaled a policy shift, from trying to weaken and perhaps topple Hamas, including by enforcing the blockade over the past eight years, to containing the group. Egypt’s military temporarily opened the border crossing with Gaza in recent days.

Thousands left Gaza for the first time in months, while shipments of desperately-needed cement entered the territory. Egypt said it acts according to changing security assessments, while Hamas officials said they were promised a further easing.

Meanwhile, Israel relaxed its stringent movement restrictions for Gaza residents, amid reports that foreign diplomats are carrying messages between Israel and Hamas on a long-term cease-fire deal. Israeli officials have also struck a new tone. The outgoing top army commander dealing with Gaza, Maj. Gen.

Sami Turgeman, has said recently that Israel and Hamas have some shared interests, while leading right-wing Cabinet minister Naftali Bennett said the Hamas presence in Gaza is a reality. “It’s not a matter of reconciling with it (Hamas rule) or not,” he told Israeli TV’s Channel 2 over the weekend. “I see that they (Hamas) are there.”

Israel and the West have branded Hamas, which is sworn to Israel’s destruction, as a terror group.

How this transcription was made

Date confirmed on the page (masthead). Adjudicated confirmed against the printed page: Masthead strip across the top of the page, to the right of the kicker "A year after Gaza war,": "DAILY AMERICAN REPUBLIC | FRIDAY, JULY 3, 2015 | PAGE 7A". 3 July 2015 was a Friday.. Legibility partial; any passage that could not be read is omitted rather than reconstructed.

Context added by this archive

The best clipping in batch B for named ordinary Palestinians: Firi, Khouli, Badwan, Jundia, with ages, jobs, prices and a donkey that eats twice what its owner earns. AP's Gaza stringer Fares Akram shares the byline, which is probably why. Nouns: 'the Islamic militant group Hamas', 'crippling Israeli-Egyptian border blockade', 'trapped', 'siege' (in a Palestinian's quote).

The word 'occupation' does not appear. Set Bennett's line here against his Chicago Tribune op-ed eleven months earlier: 'ISIS needs to be eliminated... Israel's conflict with Hamas and the current battle to stop ISIS are one and the same' becomes 'I see that they are there.'

Cite this clipping

"Hamas entrenched; frustration grows," Daily American Republic, 3 July 2015, p. 7A. Covering Palestine archive, CP-2015-023. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-2015-023