Turmoil in Gaza

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JERUSALEM.

The breaches blown open by Hamas in the wall enclosing the Gaza Strip last week have also exploded the efforts to contain Hamas politically and will require a fundamental rethinking by Israel, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority of relations with the Islamic organization.

In what Israeli analysts acknowledge to have been brilliant staging, Hamas exploited the opening given it by Israel"s sealing of the strip at the beginning of the week to rally world opinion on its side and then push home its advantage by blowing in the gateway to Egypt.

The embarrassed Egyptians could not stem the tide of Palestinians flowing through and a new Middle East dynamic may thus have been set in motion.

When the lights went dark in Gaza after Israel announced a temporary halt in fuel deliveries, Israeli officials maintained there were several days of fuel supply available in Gaza and that the blackout was artificial.

Within hours, Hamas spokesmen announced four people had died in hospitals because of the lack of electricity, a claim never verified. Well organized demonstrations were almost immediately held with youths and women carrying candles and placards.

Palestinian journalists said yesterday that when they were summoned to photograph a meeting of the Hamas Cabinet, they were surprised to see the ministers sitting around a candlelit table even though it was daytime. Drapes had been drawn to permit the picture of an embattled leadership.

These moves created international sympathy for the besieged Gazans, particularly in the Arab world where mass demonstrations were held in their support.

The Tel Aviv newspaper Ha"aretz reported yesterday that Hamas operatives had for months been digging holes along the metal barrier separating Gaza from Egypt"s Sinai Peninsula in order to permit the planting of explosives when the time was ripe politically. Before dawn Wednesday, a series of explosions blew a score of holes in the wall and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians poured across the border.

Since Israel"s withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, a cumbersome arrangement had been in place at the single crossing point at Rafah between the Gaza Strip and Egypt with Egyptian guards and international observers manning the terminal and cameras permitting Israeli security officials to monitor the crossings. Militants were able to avoid the terminal by digging tunnels under the border through which they brought in armaments.

But the difficulties involved in getting through the terminal, and its frequent closing, meant Gaza"s population was effectively cooped up once Israel closed its own entry points into Gaza except for supplies. When Israel closed its border this week even to supplies in retaliation for the rocketing of its cities from the Gaza Strip, the siege became hermetic.

Israel"s hopes of forcing Hamas to its knees have been dramatically upended. Egypt will have a hard time sealing the border again in view of popular pro-Palestinian sentiment in its own streets. Egypt is formally committed to the sovereignty of President Mahmoud Abbas" rule in Gaza, even though it is entirely in Hamas hands, and will now have to deal directly with Hamas in order to reorganize border arrangements.

Hamas leaders have invited Mr. Abbas to participate in such arrangements which would mean Mr. Abbas ending his own boycott of Hamas. The Islamist organization would like the Palestinian Authority"s involvement in order to enhance its own legitimacy. The United States, which has made its anti-Hamas stand repeatedly clear, has little option at the moment but to see how the situation plays out on the ground. Israel, for its part, says its siege will continue but if the Egyptian border remains open the siege"s effect will be greatly diminished. In any case, Hamas' stature has been greatly enhanced.

"In destroying the wall," wrote Ha"aretz correspondents Avi Issacharof and Amos Harel yesterday, "[Hamas] demonstrated once again that it is a disciplined, determined entity and an opponent that is exponentially more sophisticated [than President Abbas" Palestinian Authority]."

Abraham Rabinovich is a former reporter for the Jerusalem Post and a regular contributor to the Washington Times. His recent book is, "The Yom Kippur War: The Epic Encounter that Transformed the Middle East."