With kidnapped BBC journalist Alan Johnston free, Hamas has shown itself far more adept at imposing security on Gaza than its critics anticipated, writes Saleh Al-Naami from Gaza A young man in his early 20s, carrying a pile of papers, rushed through the hall leading to the meeting room on the fourth floor of dismissed Palestinian premier Ismail Haniyeh's cabinet office. The building is located on Ahmed Eidiyeh Street, which connects the Al-Nasr quarter of Gaza City to Al-Shati' refugee camp, where Haniyeh lives. Meanwhile, Ahmed Youssef, Haniyeh's political adviser, and government spokesperson Ghazi Hamed, stood at one side of the hall speaking quietly. Suddenly, Wael Abdel-Wahed, director of Haniyeh's office, rushed to check the meeting room. A few minutes later ministers began arriving to attend an emergency cabinet meeting. Haniyeh entered the hall arm in arm with Minister of Health and Youth Bassim Naaim. Last Saturday's scene hinted strongly at the existence of a government determined to fulfil its elected role. According to Mohamed Al-Madhoun, Haniyeh's chief of staff, the cabinet is continuing to operate in its capacity as the elected government, with security topping its agenda. In an interview with Al-Ahram Weekly, Al-Madhoun stressed that government ministries are continuing with their day to day business, and that the cabinet has approved plans to employ thousands of unemployed in cleaning the Gaza Strip and planting trees. The government, he says, is "confident" that salaries will be paid to the new employees, and revealed that Haniyeh now receives daily briefings from each ministry on its activities. Hamas, clearly intent on demonstrating its competence in ruling Gaza, received a massive boost when, at dawn on Wednesday, it secured the release of BBC journalist Alan Johnston, kidnapped four months ago by the Army of Islam militant group. Among the journalists who gathered in Haniyeh's home at 5am to welcome the newly freed Johnston were some of Hamas's fiercest critics. The consensus among them, though, was that Hamas had come through with flying colours. Emad Eid, correspondent for the independent Palestinian news agency Ma'an, told the Weekly that Johnston's release confirmed the ability of Hamas "to impose security in the Gaza Strip after years of lawlessness". Immediately following his release, Johnston said his captors had appeared confident in their operation until Hamas took charge of security operations in Gaza three weeks ago. For the government, says Youssef, it is business as usual. He revealed that Haniyeh has ordered the deployment of Palestinian security personnel along the Egyptian- Palestinian border following a request from Cairo. While Hamas is still seeking dialogue with Fatah and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, such dialogue, Youssef insists, "must take place without stipulations". On Sunday, Abbas had demanded that Hamas must "apologise" before any dialogue takes place. "Insistence on such conditions," says Youssef, "rules out the possibility of any negotiations at a time when both the Egyptian and Saudi Arabian governments have shown readiness to moderate so that dialogue can begin." Three weeks into Hamas's seizure of Gaza, early predictions of a humanitarian disaster are proving false and relief organisations working in Gaza no longer anticipate famine despite the siege. The emergency government has announced it will begin distributing the salaries of approximately 140,000 employees of the Palestinian Authority, a move which will result in improved economic conditions. Adnan Abu Hasna, spokesperson for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), warns, however, that there can be no guarantees that a humanitarian disaster will continue to be averted should Al-Mantar crossing, through which goods are imported to the Gaza Strip, not begin operating at full capacity. While Israel allows basic foodstuffs such as flour, sugar and rice into the Gaza Strip, it prevents the entry of other foodstuff and of building materials needed to repair damaged infrastructure. UNRWA operates alongside a host of charitable organisations, many of them close to the Hamas movement. Al-Salah Islamic Association, for instance, has distributed more than 80,000 food packages among the needy, cares for 8,000 orphans, runs health clinics offering treatment to more than 1,000 patients daily, and has built homes for Palestinians whose houses have been destroyed in Israel's repeated incursions, according to Ali Nassar, an employee of the charity. Despite difficult economic conditions, the popularity of Hamas, and of sacked premier Haniyeh, is growing. According to an opinion poll published in the 3 July issue of Al-Quds -- the most widely distributed Palestinian newspaper, close to Fatah and funded by the office of Abbas -- if presidential elections were held tomorrow Haniyeh would win 51.38 per cent of the vote, Abbas 13.37 per cent and jailed Fatah leader Marwan Al-Barghouti 12.62 per cent. Salam Fayyad, the head of the emergency government, would barely scrape five per cent of the popular vote. The results of the poll come as no surprise to researcher Ibrahim Abul Heija. Despite a concerted media campaign against Hamas -- regularly referred to as "oppressors" and "traitors" in the pro-Fatah media, Abbas's position, he says, has been compromised by Israeli-US support. Abbas is now seen by many Palestinians as cooperating with the occupation. In contrast, Hamas has succeeded in engineering an unprecedented improvement in security conditions in Gaza. Consolidating its position in the Strip does not mean Hamas has any intention of turning its back on resistance. Salah Al-Bardweil, spokesperson for the Hamas parliamentary bloc, told the Weekly that, "there is no problem in reconciling Hamas's role as a resistance movement and its exercise of rule." If Israel continues to refuse to countenance a Palestinian state being established within the 1967 borders, then Hamas, like other Palestinian factions, will, he says, have no option but to continue resistance. (see pp.6&7)
