Violence drives Palestinians from homes

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GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Driven by fear of civil war and increasingly bleak economic prospects, Palestinians are fleeing their violence-wracked lands in growing numbers, and travel agents report brisk demand for visas to Cuba, one of the few places that welcomes Palestinians.

Many of the emigrants are skilled and educated, who are leaving behind an increasingly impoverished and fundamentalist society.

"What Israel couldn't do by force," said pollster Nader Said, "we were able to do with internal dispute, lack of leadership, accompanied by economic pressure and the siege on Gaza."

The brain drain reverses a trend of the 1990s when, buoyed by peace prospects, thousands of well-to-do Palestinians returned from the diaspora to the West Bank and Gaza. They built homes and set up businesses.

Some 10,000 Palestinians emigrated between June and October and another 45,000 have made preparations to leave, said Ahmed Suboh, a Palestinian Foreign Ministry official.

Emigration from Gaza, in particular, has picked up.

Life in the fenced-in strip has become increasingly difficult since Israel's pullout last year. Access to neighboring Egypt is easier, but crossing points into Israel have remained closed most of the time because of Israeli security concerns.

Palestinian rocket fire and the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier have unleashed Israeli military offensives. Deadly clashes between rival militias intensified after the Islamic militant group Hamas came to power in March, ousting the Fatah movement of moderate Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Yesterday, Palestinian gunmen ambushed a Hamas commander outside a Gaza courthouse, forcing him to his knees and killing him gangland style. The slaying forced Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas to rush home from a trip abroad.

The attack was the latest in a wave of bloodshed that began Monday when unknown assailants gunned down the three young sons of a Fatah-allied security officer in Gaza City.