GAZA GANG WAR

Dead Man Walking (Newsweek)
With Gaza degenerating into Somalia-like chaos, a Hamas security chief faces enemies close to home.

Oct. 23, 2006 issue - As Yussef Al-Zahar's gray Mitsubishi pickup truck wends its way through the crowded streets of Gaza City, there is no obvious sign of the men who want him dead. "Quiet day," he says, glancing out the window during his regular afternoon patrol. At a busy intersection, he jumps out to chat briefly with a clutch of bearded, black-clad men cradling Kalashnikovs in the Gaza heat. But the field commander in the territory's Hamas-controlled "executive force" doesn't linger anywhere for long. "We have to expect anything," Zahar says once he's back in the truck and on the road again. "It's a battle of the gangsters now."

Gaza is a long way from the days when a militant knew clearly who his enemies were. At one time, Israeli troops seemed like Zahar's most formidable foe. .... [T]he most immediate threat to Zahar's life might now come from his own countrymen. After ten Palestinians were killed and 100 wounded in running gun battles two weeks ago—the bloodiest episode of infighting since the Islamist group took power—Fatah militants issued a leaflet calling for the assassination of Zahar and two other key Hamas figures.

The power struggle has been intensifying for months now, fueled by frustration in Gaza over unpaid salaries and Israel's economic stranglehold. Add in an upsurge in crime, itself partly a byproduct of rampant unemployment, and the violence threatens to evolve into something altogether more amorphous. "We're getting close to Somalia," says a senior Palestinian intelligence officer, who didn't want to be identified discussing the strife.