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Analysis: Gaza's Anger on High Boil

Council on Foreign Relations

June 12, 2006
Prepared by: Michael Moran

Grim signs of an approaching showdown have emerged from within the Palestinian territories over the past several days. The trip wire? An errant shell or rocket (BBC) killed a Palestinian family on a Gaza beach (Haaretz). Despite Israel's pledge to investigate, anger boiled over in Gaza (al-Jazeera) and Hamas announced an end to the cease-fire it had been observing since taking office in January. Israel, in turn, responded with a warning that Hamas-sponsored violence could result in the targeting of the Palestinian prime minister (ISN).

All this cast a new light on the political gambit of Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, who is threatening to call a referendum on the Hamas government's unwillingness to negotiate with Israel. Talks between Abbas' once-dominant Fatah faction and Hamas have failed so far to settle the issue, though Hamas pledged to prevent such a vote (CSMonitor). Outside the talks, however, factional violence reigns, with Monday night bringing an assault by Fatah gunmen (JPost) on the Hamas government's offices in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

Furthermore, a crushing international economic embargo of the Hamas government continues, causing chaos for the PA's finances and "radicalizing even those who were not radicalized before," CFR Senior Fellow Judith Kipper told Bernard Gwertzman in an interview.

Read the rest of this article on the cfr.org website.

Copyright 2006 by the Council on Foreign Relations. This material is republished on GlobalSecurity.org with specific permission from the cfr.org. Reprint and republication queries for this article should be directed to cfr.org.