In Gaza Battle, Even Home Is Not Safe

A Palestinian policeman guards in a street in Gaza City Sunday, Feb. 4, 2007. Hamas gunmen attacked bases of Fatah-allied troops with mortars and rocket-propelled grenades early Sunday, part of a four-day campaign by the Islamic militants to weaken the security forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa) (Hatem Moussa - AP)

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Gaza's civilians have no place to hide.

With war raging in the streets between Hamas and Fatah loyalists, bullets, grenades and ceiling-piercing mortar shells are flying from all directions, battering homes, shops and schools.

"Anyone who says he is not scared is a liar," Zaher Abdel Rahman, a computer technician whose sixth-floor apartment in downtown Gaza City has been hit by bullets and a mortar shell, said Sunday.

There's no way to run. The Gaza Strip's border is closed, locking 1.4 million Palestinians in a coastal territory just 27 miles long and 5 miles deep with food and other basics running short.

A fresh cease-fire was declared Sunday evening, but there was no indication it would be any more successful than previous truces in recent weeks of factional fighting.

Gazans have long been accustomed to violence. But until recently, combat was between Palestinian militants and Israeli troops, and the lines of battle were clear.

The last few weeks of fighting between Hamas and Fatah gunmen have taken on a different feel. Gunfire can erupt at any time, poorly trained fighters shoot at random, and the target isn't always known.

Fighting has left parts of Gaza a moonscape of burned cars and wrecked buildings. Some of its best known institutions, including mosques and universities, have been heavily damaged from fires set by combatants or rockets punching holes in the walls.

Civilians are caught in the middle. Gunmen take up positions on the roofs of Gaza City's high-rise apartment buildings, put up makeshift roadblocks in residential areas and harass anyone venturing outdoors when there is no shooting.

Residents are afraid to tell gunmen to leave their buildings, despite the danger they will attract fire. On Saturday, a Hamas radio station warned that the Islamic militant group's men would attack any building where they spotted rival fighters. But they have not carried out the threat.

Even in areas without fighting, people are wary when they go outside. On Sunday, children walked down streets with their backs to walls to lessen the danger in case gunfire should break out.

Some residents liken their situation to the fighting that devastated Beirut during Lebanon's civil war in the 1970s and '80s.