Sonia Verma-17/05/2007

Sonia Verma, (Times)

"It is rare for Mahmoud Abbas and Khaled Meshaal to speak. They have done so a handful of times before, and not since the unity Government was formed in March.

However, what we are increasingly seeing with this conflict is that political solutions like those they are attempting to engineer simply aren't the answer.

Overwhelmingly, sectarian battles in Gaza are being conducted by a multitude of factional military leaders on the streets who want to settle certain scores, and who believe they answer to no-one. This is best illustrated with the recent kidnapping of Alan Johnston. These local commanders lead factions and criminal gangs, who are well beyond the reach of any political solution.

If we can detect any strategy at all behind this increasingly chaotic round of fighting, it would be that the recent rocket attacks against Israel by supporters of Hamas are a clear attempt to change the focus of this dispute.

Hamas would like this to be a two-way battle, and it would rather the war was with Israel than with Fatah. If it draws Israel into a significant response, it would serve Hamas's purpose of unifying the struggle once more against a common enemy, and currying greater popularity for Hamas fighters on the street.

The indications are that - despite the retaliation which we have seen so far today - the Israeli Government is aware of Hamas' latest strategy and the statements coming out of the country so far indicate that it is reluctant to launch a large-scale ground invasion of the Gaza Strip."

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