Armed forces patrol streets

Ramallah: Hamas may now be in control of Gaza, but it was forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the Fatah movement who were on the streets of Ramallah yesterday.

Following emergency measures imposed by President Abbas, heavily armed soldiers patrolled the streets in what is seen by residents of the West Bank town as a show of force directed at Hamas.

Jeeps with mounted machine guns were stationed on street corners, and masked Fatah gunmen roamed, congregating in the central Manara square, close to the presidential compound.

A few kilometres away, a burned-out jeep remained outside the house of a Hamas-member - evidence of retribution being handed out for the situation in Gaza, where Hamas is now in complete control.

A commander with one of the five Fatah-affiliated security forces patrolling Ramallah, as part of the new emergency security measures, told Gulf News that his men were ready to remain for as long as needed.

People's suffering

"Some of the men are masked because they feel that they will be targeted by Hamas, but all we are doing is following the President's orders," he said.

While the situation remained largely calm in Ramallah, many residents expressed trepidation about what the next few days may bring in the West Bank.

American-Palestinian John Hanna, 60, said that the situation in Gaza and the prospect of the violence spilling over to the West Bank was "devastating."

"Look at how the people here are living," he said, sitting with family members outside their corner shop in the town's centre.

"Both sides are to blame and it is those at the top who are fighting and the regular people are the ones suffering." While denouncing the violence in Gaza, Bassam, a taxi driver, said the main problem lies with Fatah.

"The problem is that Gaza is being run by mafias and militias. If Abu Ammar [Yasser Arafat], Shaikh Yassin or Rantissi [Hamas leaders assassinated by Israel] were alive today this would not be happening."

But for 22-year-old Faraj Yousuf, the display of force was "a clear message" to Hamas of Fatah's strength in the West Bank.

"Abu Mazen [President Abbas] is doing this to prevent the same terrible situation that has happened in Gaza. I am very angry about what has happened there, but many of us feel powerless," he said.

With the situation between Fatah and Hamas becoming increasingly tense in the West Bank town of Nablus, Abu Louai's family told him not to come home for the weekend.

"I think that Fatah will continue to try to exert power over Hamas here, but I don't think it will get to the same stage as Gaza," said Abu Louai, who supported Hamas during the 2006 parliamentary elections.