With a newly imposed Israeli buffer zone in Gaza and the Palestinian Legislative Council elections approaching, a wave of violence is plaguing the Palestinian territories. Khaled Amayreh in the West Bank and Erica Silverman in Gaza report INCENDIARY SITUATION: Tension is once again rife throughout the occupied Palestinian territories as both Palestinians and Israelis are gearing up for crucial parliamentary elections. Indeed, a war-like atmosphere is already taking place in northern Gaza where the Israeli occupation army has designated a "no-go zone". At least five Palestinians, including two civilians, have already been killed and a number of other people have been injured and maimed by often indiscriminate Israeli fire. On Monday, three activists, reportedly affiliated with the Islamic Jihad resistance group, were killed instantly when an armed Israeli drone fired two missiles at their car. Earlier, Israeli tanks fired an artillery shell on two civilians seen walking near the zone, shredding their bodies into pieces. In the West Bank, the Israeli army is also increasing both the frequency and ferocity of forays into Palestinian population centres. The "arrest operations" often involve acts of harassment, humiliation and terrorisation against ordinary Palestinian civilians. Moreover, the Israeli army, in cooperation with aggressive Talmudic Jewish settlers, have been vandalising (and in some cases stealing) Palestinian olive groves, especially those adjacent to Jewish colonies and on the "Israeli" side of the separation fence. Last week, Jewish settlers cut off thousands of fully grown olive trees around the village of Salim in the Nablus region. The destruction prompted human rights groups and even Israeli peace activists to accuse the Israeli government and army of "conniving with the settlers" and conducting a "conspiracy of silence". The protests eventually prompted Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz to order an investigation into the wanton vandalism and extirpation of Palestinian groves. However, very few people have any faith in investigations by the army into criminal actions by Jewish settlers. Israeli officials had repeatedly sought to assure Palestinian farmers that the construction of the part-wall- part-fence barrier wouldn't prejudice their access to their farms and groves and certainly wouldn't lead to the confiscation of their land by Israel. These promises and assurances, however, seem to have evaporated during the past few months, as the Israeli army and Jewish settlers began uprooting large numbers of decades-old olive trees in order to re-plant them in Israeli settlements and kibbutzim. Some of the more brazen thefts took place at gunpoint near the village of Sikka, 20km west of Hebron, on Monday, 2 January. When villagers sought to protest against the extirpation of their trees, the main source of their livelihood, an officer told them to "complain to Allah if He could help you." FATAH DITHERING: Meanwhile, the Fatah movement, which continues to experience internal squabbles, is dithering about the upcoming Palestinian elections with a number of its leaders calling openly for postponing the polls. It is widely believed that the real reason behind the dithering is a haunting apprehension on Fatah's part that Hamas, the Islamic resistance group, might score a resounding victory, thus relegating Fatah, the quasi-secular movement and de facto governing party of the Palestinian Authority, into secondary status. Observers contend it is already too late to postpone the elections and suggest that postponement would cause a lot of damage to all parties concerned, including Fatah itself. PA President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) seems reluctant to postpone the elections and hundreds of international elections monitors have already arrived in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Uncertainty surrounding the holding of elections comes amid escalating Israeli harassment of candidates campaigning in Eastern Jerusalem. On Tuesday, Israel detained prominent candidate Mustafa Barghouti, who ran for president of the Palestinian Authority last January, and warned him against campaigning in Jerusalem. Israeli authorities also demanded that former Palestinian peace negotiator Hanan Ashrawi stop her campaign in the city. After his release, Barghouti said he was unfazed by his detention and is willing to re- enter his birthplace Jerusalem despite claims by the Israeli government that he does not have a permit to enter the city and so his presence there is illegal. For its part, Hamas has been making serious preparations for the elections. The Hamas "Change and Reform" list is carefully avoiding slogans glorifying the armed struggle and resistance against Israel, ostensibly in order not to scare ordinary candidates and also to invite more favourable reactions in the international arena. Instead, the movement is prominently featuring its commitment to fight corruption, condemned as the "most serious threat facing our people after the Israeli occupation". The movement is also promising the Palestinian public to take a more stringent position on behalf of nearly 10,000 Palestinian political and resistance prisoners languishing in Israeli jails and detention centres, many without charge or trial. Hamas has actually sought to underscore its commitment to freeing the prisoners by including a number of them on its top list of candidates for next month's elections. Moreover, Hamas leaders have indicated that the movement's public posture is likely to undergo some moderation in the post-elections period, especially if it joins the Palestinian government. It is quite possible that this contemplated moderation will include a more pragmatic posture vis-à-vis Israel such as avoiding vitriolic statements calling for the destruction of the Jewish state. Meanwhile, Israeli officials have been formulating an official policy in case Hamas emerges victorious in the elections or becomes part of the PA government. One Israeli official, Dov Weisglass, predicted that Israel might just abandon the "roadmap" peace plan if Hamas took over the PA. Responding to the remarks, a Hamas candidate in the Hebron region argued that "it is Israel that has already effectively killed the 'roadmap' by killing the prospect of a viable Palestinian state in the West Bank." Less than two hours after the few Gazans celebrating had rung in the New Year, masked militants detonated explosives inside the restaurant of the United Nations Beach Club, marking the first spark of violence inside Gaza City for 2006. The attack is viewed as part of the recent wave of political violence leading up to the 25 January Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) elections, primarily orchestrated by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, the militant wing of President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah Party. Two days after Christmas a British human rights worker, Kate Burton, brought her parents to Gaza on holiday to the Strip. The three were seized near the Rafah border by the Mujahadeen Brigades, an offshoot of Al-Aqsa, and were held captive for two and half days. The militant group has threatened to abduct more foreigners -- the majority of whom will be present as observers for the coming PLC elections -- if their demands for pressure on Israel are not met. On New Year's day another offshoot of Al-Aqsa claimed responsibility for kidnapping an Italian aide in the European parliament, Alessandro Bernardini, from Khan Yunis, while he was travelling with two EU law-makers. The faction demanded a full investigation into the death of Yasser Arafat and the removal of corrupt leaders from the Fatah leadership. After a gun battle with PA police the kidnappers escaped. On 28 December the Israeli army implemented a buffer zone along the northern border of Gaza, extending 3.5km into Palestinian territory and spanning from the Mediterranean Sea to about 6km east of Erez Terminal. "Operation Blue Skies" began that evening as Israeli forces shelled targets in Northern Gaza through the night. The no-go zone was created to curtail rocket fire making its way into southern Israel from the area. F-16 fighter jets rained thousands of leaflets over northern Gaza Tuesday night and into Wednesday afternoon, ordering Palestinian residents to evacuate before bombarding the area with artillery fire. "Whoever ignores this warning is putting his life in genuine danger... know that terrorist elements have turned you into hostages and human shields, and are undermining your interests," read the leaflets. Senior adviser to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Raanan Gissin, stated that no ground troops will enter the zone, which will be enforced through aerial surveillance, artillery fire and air strikes. Israel claims the zone consists mostly of empty fields and agricultural land, where the former Jewish settlements were located. Actually, an estimated 500 to 700 Palestinians reside within the zone. "Anyone who lives in those areas can stay in their homes," admonished an Israeli army spokesman. Palestinians view the buffer zone as a re- occupation of settlement areas that Israel withdrew from and turned over to PA control in September after 38 years of occupation. Senior Hamas political leader, Said Siyam in Gaza City described the zone as "a new attempt to re-occupy the Gaza Strip, which brings the conflict back to the same circle." As of 1 January the agreed upon ceasefire, or "period of calm" between Palestinian factions came to a close. It is likely that the "calm" will hold until after the elections, while factions' interests lie in their political campaigns, although, if Israeli forces continue to fire into the buffer zone, Hamas is less likely to adhere to an expired truce. A senior spokesperson for Islamic Jihad in Gaza, Khaled Al-Batsh, told Al-Ahram Weekly, "this [buffer zone] is a flawed Israeli tactic that failed in southern Lebanon, and will fail here in northern Gaza... a solution will not come from this zone, it will only come from ending the occupation." President Abbas's ruling Fatah Party is vying with Hamas for political ascendancy, and to date Fatah is only enjoying a 10-point lead in the polls. As the official campaign period commenced on 3 January, Hamas has shown political shrewdness and a commitment to the democratic process, exhibited by their well organised primaries and effective methods of campaigning, making use of popular media channels to inform the public about their candidates and the newly adopted proportional representation voting system. Meanwhile, Al-Aqsa militants stormed Central Elections Commissions offices in Gaza and the West Bank to express their angst over Fatah's arbitrary selection of their candidates. A senior Al-Aqsa leader from the West Bank, Fadi QaFishi told the Weekly, "we are not satisfied with holding the PLC elections at this time, but if Abbas insists on proceeding... we will not go against the PA leadership." In the coming days Al-Aqsa will announce their official position regarding the elections. When asked if the recent kidnappings are an attempt to undermine the security situation to postpone the election, QaFishi replied, "not every group who calls themselves Al-Aqsa is really part of the brigades." Every major Palestinian city has three of four branches of Al-Aqsa that are far from unified. Fatah argues the elections should be postponed due to the newly created buffer zone and also because of the ambiguity over East Jerusalem residents' ability to participate, and the chaos that has erupted in the territories, particularly in Gaza.
