THE GREEN flags of Hamas flutter from lamp posts in the Bureij refugee township but there are also clusters of red banners from the Marxist Popular Front and an odd black banner of Islamic Jihad. And there are a sprinkling of yellow flags to remind the people of Gaza that fighters from Fatah also helped in their defence, despite the group’s bitter hostility to Hamas, which ousted it from control of the Strip.
Abu Ahmad (37) is an officer in the logistics section of Hamas’s al-Qassam Brigades. He co-ordinates specialised units such as the artillery corps, which fires rockets and mortars, first aid and extraction of wounded and dead, front line troops, sappers and snipers.
He says the brigades had two types of anti-tank weapons. “Fighters are trained on these, some in Iran. Our capabilities exceed those of other countries in the region,” he says.
He confirms too that members of Fatah’s al-Aqsa Brigades stood with Hamas’s al-Qassam Brigades, the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades of the Popular Front, and the al-Quds Brigades of Islamic Jihad. The yellow flags are not an empty boast. “Hamas’s military wing is the largest,” he insists. “We had full co-ordination with other military formations and committees facilitated this co-ordination.”
“The average age of fighters is 18-20,” he says, “although there are some of 57-58 years. Units are not assigned to specific areas since we are engaged in guerrilla warfare. About 48-50 Hamas fighters were killed and 50 from the other groups.
“During the war there was social solidarity between fighters and civilians who gave us food and water. Many refused to leave their houses even though they were being targeted.”
However, he adds, “if people asked us to leave, we left”.
He admits that the fighters were massively outgunned, but argues that, “We in the resistance must fight the Israelis with whatever we have. The resistance prevented the Israelis from reaching central Gaza City. Gaza is unlike the West Bank where the Israelis go freely into and out of Pales-tinian cities and towns.
“Even if there is a peace agreement, the Israelis will break their commitments. During the [ongoing] election campaign, they [Israeli politicians] are competing with one another to say how they will kill Palestinians.”
He flatly rejects Israel’s contention that its onslaught on Gaza was meant to stop the firing of rockets into Israel by Hamas and its allies.
“The rockets do not damage very much or kill many Israelis. Israel attacked us because it cannot tolerate the resistance or any one who defends himself.”
He feels “no remorse or guilt” about the death and destruction that Gaza has seen as a result of Hamas’s commitment to armed resistance to the occupation.
“Without the resistance civilian casualties might have been more.”
Abu Ahmad says he has taken part in political life from the time he was a child. His home was demolished during the first intifada (1987-93) and people he knew were killed or wounded. He joined Hamas’s military wing in 1994 when it was formed.
Married with children, he once worked installing aluminium doors and windows but is now a student. His brother, a policeman, was wounded in the head when Israel launched its initial series of air strikes on the Strip on December 27th.
“We want our children to live in peace like children everywhere. We want the children of the Israelis to live in a framework of a just peace.”
That perspective is widely shared in Gaza, even by those who had once opposed Hamas.
“At the beginning of this war, people were critical of Hamas for sending rockets into Israel,” Dr Eyad Sarraj, head of the Gaza community mental health programme observes.
“But when Israel showed its ugly face [by bombing and destroying without discrimination], people realised Israel was waging a war against all of us.”
Reem, a graduate student in political science who is also a critic of Hamas, remarks: “The Israelis will hit us whatever we do. They want to keep the occupation . . . They want to keep us in a big prison. No one can defend us.”
An electrician, a member of the once powerful Hilles clan, says: “I’m Fatah. I fought Hamas in the streets in June 2007. I got shot in the leg and deported to the West Bank.
“Still the Israelis came and destroyed my house. They did not bomb it from a plane or a helicopter but they set explosive charges around it and blew it up.”