Fatah, foes in Gaza `showing our teeth'

When we think of the various conflicting perspectives within the State of Israel on just about all matters, but especially on how to deal with the Intifada II, we often forget that among the Arabs there is also a growing contentious argument going on, based on who will control what, and more often than not being fought out with guns and bloodshed rather than with ballots and elections.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- A lone truck circled up and down the hot, grimy streets on Sunday, blasting out a call for people to join a march Monday to help restore peace, not with Israel, but among warring Palestinian factions.

Still, Palestinian officials are not just counting on such rallies to end the bloodshed that erupted last week between the Palestinian Authority and the militant Islamic group, Hamas.

Armed security forces were staked out at most street corners in Gaza City, while others roamed the area, stopping cars in a rare effort to confiscate weapons from anyone not within the Palestinian Authority.

While talks continued between officials from Hamas and Fatah, the largest of all of the Palestinian factions and the one led by Yasser Arafat, tension hung in the air.

Fatah officials claimed that Hamas was using one bloody incident to show its growing strength, to test the grit of the Palestinian Authority's security forces and to stake out a much larger role for itself in Palestinian politics.

"They [Hamas] are testing the waters to see if they can take over," said Jihad al Wazir, a high-ranking official in the Palestinian Authority and son of Abu Jihad, one of Fatah's founders.

"So we are showing our teeth and they are showing their teeth, and hopefully we'll sit down and resolve this," he said.