Gaza: Fatah Hopes for Comeback

Palestinian security force officers loyal to the Fatah Movement carry automatic rifles and documents seized after they raided a Hamas run mosque in the West Bank city of Nablus, Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2007. Palestinian security forces seized three assault rifles in a hiding place in the local mosque. The intelligence chief in Nablus, Abu Jihad Kmeil, accused Hamas of using mosques for illegal activity.(AP Photo/Nasser Ishtayeh) (Nasser Ishtayeh - AP)

Many senior Fatah leaders fled Gaza in June, most Fatah offices are still closed after having been trashed by Hamas gunmen, and party officials often work from home or local coffee shops.

However, the Fatah youth movement Shabiba, the party's women's organization and social service groups have found a new home in the former British Council building in Gaza City.

On a recent morning, Shabiba leader Nabil Kattari held a strategy session in his ground floor office with Fatah student activists. Kattari said Shabiba has some 50,000 members in Gaza and claimed many would turn up for protests during Ramadan.

Hamas' tough measures have "given new strength to Fatah in the street," he said. "New elections are the main goal."

Fatah officials portray the protests as a joint effort of various Palestine Liberation Organization factions, not just of Fatah, apparently to avoid the impression that the party is instigating a new power struggle with Hamas, an unpopular notion in Gaza. However, the other factions are tiny and appear to be little more than a figleaf.

In a new tactic, to be highlighted during Ramadan, a time of increased religious fervor, Fatah is also trying to challenge Hamas' claim to a monopoly on all things Islamic. "We can compete with them on a religious level," said Fatah spokesman Hazem Abu Shanab.

Last Friday's prayer protests drew just a few hundred worshippers who placed their prayer mats in the streets, but the televised images of Hamas riot police firing in the air and clubbing protesters prompted widespread anger among Palestinians.

Siyam, a 26-year-old Fatah activist, said Hamas police seized him several hours after a prayer vigil in Gaza City, took him to a remote location and beat him with clubs and rocks. Four days later, his arms and legs were swollen and covered with deep purple bruises.

Siyam said he believes he was targeted because he had helped Spanish journalists film Hamas' violent dispersal of the prayer vigil from a rooftop near his home.

He said he's so angry he's ready to join the next protest, even with a sore body. "I just hate what Hamas is doing," he said, sitting on a bed in his small cinderblock house.