(AFP) – Aug 13, 2007

GAZA CITY (AFP) — Two months after Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip, order has been restored but dissenting media have been muzzled and accusations abound of political witch-hunts by the victorious Islamists.

Aid agencies warn that Gaza's continued isolation from the outside world will spell disaster for one of the most crowded areas on the planet, where unemployment is rampant and the majority of the population depends on aid.

But the raging lawlessness and factional street battles that preceded Hamas's bloody takeover on June 15 are a distant memory on Gaza's crowded beaches on Fridays, as children fly kites and vendors hawk their wares on Islam's day of rest.

"Since the coup d'etat, there is no more shooting in the streets," says Marwan, 40, an unemployed clothing factory worker relaxing on a beach where Hamas fighters swim under the watchful eye of a bearded lifeguard. "The security is back, that is an accomplishment."

Before Hamas's rout of security forces loyal to president Mahmud Abbas of the secular Fatah party, the two camps had long competed for power in the impoverished territory, awash in guns and hopelessness.

The final week of battle witnessed a horrific level of inter-Palestinian violence, with one Fatah man thrown to his death from a high-rise building with his hands bound and another dragged through the streets before his battered body was riddled with bullets.

But today Hamas -- boycotted by Israel and the West as a terror outfit -- is the only party in charge and the security that so many Gaza residents longed for during the months of factional fighting has returned.

Gunbattles no longer erupt in the streets, rubbish is collected and cars even stop at traffic lights.

"Gaza was a sick body that needed treating," says one man playing cards on the beach with his friends.

But while many residents and business owners rejoice at the restored security, others warn of the sinister sides to Hamas rule.

Dissenting media have been nearly all shut down, Fatah members complain of persecution, and on Monday Hamas announced that all demonstrations would be banned unless they had prior authorisation.

Soon after the ban was announced, baton-wielding Hamas fighters beat Fatah members in Gaza City as they tried to prevent them from holding a protest.

However the protesters refused to disperse and were eventually allowed to continue their demonstration, an AFP correspondent said.

International aid groups warn that there is a fertile breeding ground for extremists if Gaza -- which has a population of 1.5 million people -- remains sealed off from the outside world.

Since Hamas took power, it has closed the pro-Fatah public television, radio station and news agency and the Islamists today control all electronic media in Gaza, except for one radio station linked to the small Islamic Jihad group.

Fatah members holding important posts are finding themselves out of a job, even doctors at hospitals where they have worked for years.

"Everywhere, they are throwing out the Fathawi (Fatah members) and replacing them with Hamsawi (Hamas members)," says Jumaa al-Saqqa, a physician who was fired last week as public relations chief at Shifa Hospital, sparking two days of protests by staff.

The hospital's director general and several other top officials were also fired. Saqqa was arrested by Hamas paramilitaries hours after his dismissal along with his son and held for several hours before being released.

Saqqa said the action against him followed his declaration that he would only take orders from the government appointed by Abbas after the Gaza takeover -- a cabinet that Hamas has refused to recognise.

"That drove them crazy," Saqqa says. "They told me, 'if you return to the hospital, a stray bullet can lodge in your head'."

Rights groups have slammed the treatment meted out to Fatah members by Hamas's Executive Force, the paramilitary that has acted as police since the takeover.

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights said it has received information regarding "scores of people who were subjected to torture, beating and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment during detention and interrogation by the Executive Force."

Hamas has denied all the charges, saying its forces do not torture and persecute, but fight corruption and protect the population.

But only basic humanitarian aid now enters Gaza and aid agencies are warning that continued closure of a territory where more than 80 percent of the population already depends on aid would be a disaster.

"Gaza risks becoming a virtually 100 percent aid dependent, closed down and isolated community within a matter of months or weeks, if the present regime of closure continues," a senior official with the UN agency for Palestinian refugees warned last week.

"Failure to open the crossings will lead to disastrous consequences and an atmosphere of hopelessness and despair in which extremism is likely to take hold," he said.

Preaching at a mosque during Friday prayers last week, sacked Hamas premier Ismail Haniya said the Islamic Resistance Movement did not want to establish a "police state... our offices and houses are open."

He then launched into fierce criticism of Abbas and Fatah, accusing them of trying to weaken the Islamists with the aid of Israel and the Americans.

"They are relying on the Americans," he told the crowd, his voice rising. "But we, we have the support of God!"

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