From McClatchy Newspapers, Saturday, July 5, 2008, by Dion Nissenbaum:
BEIT HANOUN, Gaza Strip ...Two weeks into a shaky cease-fire...the Egyptian-brokered peace is slowly unraveling as Hamas leaders in Gaza struggle to keep militants — especially their Fatah rivals — from firing the occasional rocket at Israel.
It's an awkward situation for Hamas: After years of derailing Palestinian peace talks with Israel by staging suicide bombings, Hamas is now the one asking rivals to halt their attacks on Israel.
Hamas is using a mix of coercion and shame to try to keep militants from breaking the deal. In the past week, Hamas has arrested two Fatah members and given them stern warnings to fall in line.
Hamas also has directed all militants to get permission before firing any rockets at Israel. If it happens without approval, a Hamas-led crisis management team steps in. And the Islamist group has publicly accused Gaza rocket launchers of betraying the Palestinian people and playing into Israeli hands by staging their attacks.
So far, it hasn't been enough.
Since the cease-fire took hold on Jun 19, Gaza militants have fired 11 rockets and mortars at southern Israel. They caused little damage but Israel used them to justify temporarily blocking the flow of supplies into Gaza.
In response, Hamas leaders have accused Israel of breaking its part of the deal by closing the borders. They've also warned that the shut-down could jeopardize the possible release of Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier captured by Gaza militants more than two years ago....
...Hamas has already detained several Fatah members, including a spokesman for the group's militant wing, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade....
...Mohammed Abu Irmana, the detained Al Aqsa spokesman, said in a telephone interview with McClatchy that Al Aqsa would continue to fire rockets if Israel keeps staging deadly raids in the West Bank....
...Members of Islamic Jihad, the Gaza group that was the first to break the cease-fire after two if its members were killed in an Israeli raid in the West Bank, said the same thing.
...."This cease-fire is a matter of rest," said a 20-year-old fighter who gave his non du guerre as Abu Mohammed. "It's a fighters' break, to prepare for the next stage."
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