The Battle of Gaza, also known as the Gaza Civil War, was a brief civil war between Fatah and Hamas that took place in the Gaza Strip from 7 to 15 June 2007. It was a prominent event in the Fatah–Hamas conflict, centered on the struggle for power after the fall of the National Unity Government between Hamas and Fatah, which was dissolved shortly afterwards. This led to the de facto division of the Palestinian territories into two entities: the West Bank governed by the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), and the Gaza Strip governed by Hamas. Hamas fighters took control of the Gaza Strip, while Fatah officials were either taken as prisoners, executed, or expelled. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights reported that at least 161 people were killed and more than 700 were wounded during the fighting.
Background
Events leading up to the 2006 Palestinian legislative election
In 2003, the Palestinian Basic Law of the PNA was amended and a semi-presidential form of government was established, whereby a constitution creates a directly elected fixed-term president, plus a prime minister and cabinet collectively responsible to the legislature.
Documents published in the Palestine Papers reveal that in 2004, the British Secret Intelligence Service helped to draw up a security plan for the Fatah-led PNA. The plan proposed a number of ways to degrade the capabilities of opposition groups such as Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and Al-Aqsa Brigades. The strategy would involve disruption of command, control, and communications capabilities, detention of key officials, and confiscation of their weapons and financial resources. This plan was passed to Jibril Rajoub, a senior Fatah official of the PNA, and most of the stated objectives were achieved by the West Bank-based PNA security apparatus.
Yasser Arafat, the President of the Palestinian National Authority, died on 11 November 2004. A Palestinian presidential election to fill the position took place on 9 January 2005 in both the West Bank and Gaza. This election—which was boycotted by both Hamas and PIJ—resulted in Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Fatah chairman Mahmoud Abbas being elected president for a four-year term.
On 8 February 2005, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced a ceasefire, which Hamas endorsed on 17 March 2005. On 19 March 2005, twelve Palestinian factions—including Fatah, Hamas, PIJ, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP)—signed the Palestinian Cairo Declaration, which reaffirmed the status of the PLO as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, and implied a reform of the PLO by its inclusion of Hamas and PIJ.
Israel completed its unilateral disengagement from the Gaza Strip on 12 September 2005, removing all Israeli residents and security personnel, and demolishing all of the associated residential buildings.
On 26 September 2005, Israeli forces arrested or detained 450 members of Hamas for violating the ban on rallies, public meetings, and election campaigns inside Jerusalem. Most of those Hamas members were either running for office or actively campaigning for candidates in the 2006 Palestinian legislative election.
2006 Palestinian legislative election
The 2006 Palestinian legislative election took place on 25 January 2006 and was assessed by international observers as free and fair. It resulted in a Hamas victory, surprising Israel and the United States, which had expected Fatah to retain power. On 27 January, US President George Bush said "the landslide victory of the militant Islamic group Hamas was a rejection of the 'status quo' and a repudiation of the 'old guard' that had failed to provide honest government and services".
On 30 January 2006, the Quartet on the Middle East (United States, Russia, United Nations, and European Union) issued a formal statement congratulating the Palestinian people. In the statement, the Quartet stipulated that "future assistance to any new Government would be reviewed by donors against that Government's commitment to the principles of non-violence, recognition of Israel, and acceptance of previous agreements and obligations, including the Road Map." Hamas rejected these conditions, saying that "the 'unfair conditions' would endanger the well-being of Palestinians". This view was echoed by Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal, who said: "The European Union insisted on having elections in Palestine, and this is the result of what they asked for. Now to come around, and say [they] don't accept the will of the people that was expressed through democratic means, seems an unreasonable position to take." The BBC's diplomatic correspondent, James Robbins, said the Quartet's response was chosen with care: "They did not demand a renunciation of violence or immediate recognition of Israel, but a commitment to these things in the future".
First Haniyeh Government
After Hamas rejected the conditions of the Quartet, Fatah and other factions refused to join in a national unity government. On 29 March 2006, Hamas established the First Haniyeh Government, which was composed mostly of members of Hamas, with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh as Prime Minister. The international community responded by imposing economic sanctions against the PNA, and Egypt and Israel largely closed their border crossings with Gaza, instituting a blockade of the Gaza Strip.
President Abbas was under pressure from the international community, which considered Hamas's victory to be unacceptable, as it was perceived to undermine decades of international efforts to secure a peaceful resolution to the conflict. The Quartet attempted to undermine Hamas and force it from power, while strengthening the position of Abbas. It was suggested that Abbas could use his constitutional powers to dismiss the government and call for new elections, which would be intended to yield a different result and reinstall Fatah in power on the grounds that the Palestinian electorate would perceive Hamas as a failure. The threat of new elections was never carried out because it emerged that Hamas might in fact be returned to power despite its inability to implement its manifesto, and because the movement itself strongly signaled that calling new elections, although a constitutional prerogative of the President, would amount to "a coup against Palestinian legitimacy and the will of the Palestinian people".
The new Hamas government clashed with President Abbas, who had to share power with it based on the Palestinian National Covenant. Through presidential decrees, Abbas extended exclusive presidential authority concerning administrative actions and periodically threatened to dismiss the Haniya government. He also placed the security forces of the Gaza Strip under his direct control and increased the Palestinian Presidential Guard—which consisted entirely of Fatah activists loyal to him—from about 90 to 1,000 officers. Hamas responded by creating a parallel security force—the Executive Force—which consisted of members of its military wing, led by Jamal Abu Samhadana. Abbas denounced the move as unconstitutional, saying that only the Palestinian president could command armed forces. The two forces refused to cooperate—Hamas's forces supported armed resistance against Israel, whereas those of Fatah were committed to upholding the Oslo Accords.
Hamas was receiving money and arms from Iran, and possibly Syria, and was threatening to increase its Executive Force to 6,000 men. At that point, the U.S. began to provide training in urban anti-terrorist techniques to members of the Presidential Guard, with the goal of strengthening Abbas's security forces. Egypt, Jordan, and Turkey also began to provide similar training for the Fatah forces, and Britain, Spain, and the European Union began to provide communications equipment, vehicles, and logistical support. There was also a plan to add the PLO's Jordan-based Badr Brigade to the Presidential Guard. Israel's Security Agency also supported President Abbas and the Presidential Guard but was concerned from their previous experience, where many Palestinian security officers who had been trained by the CIA later engaged in attacks on Israeli targets or joined the al-Aqsa Brigades during the Second Intifada.
Following the abduction by Hamas militants of Gilad Shalit on 25 June 2006 in a cross-border raid via a tunnel out of Gaza, Israel arrested 49 senior Hamas officials, including 33 parliamentarians, nearly a quarter of PLC members and ministers on the West Bank. They also intensified the boycott of Gaza and took other punitive measures.
Second Haniyeh Government
President Abbas and the Fatah-dominated PLO developed a plan to replace the Hamas government with one acceptable to Israel and the international community. According to the plan, unveiled in Al Jazeera's Palestine Papers, a national unity government would be formed by mid-2007. If this new government failed to meet the Quartet's conditions, Abbas would dismiss the government and form an emergency government or call early elections.
By October 2006, the United States, Israel, many Arab governments, and most of Abbas's key advisors still held the view that if Hamas did not unambiguously accept the Quartet's conditions, it should be forced out of power. In December 2006, President Abbas called for new parliamentary and presidential elections, which members of both Hamas and Fatah rejected.
The Fatah and Hamas factions finally signed an agreement to stop their military confrontations on 8 February 2007 and agreed to form a national unity government. That government was established in March 2007.
Battle
According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the June 2007 escalation was triggered by Hamas's conviction that the Palestinian Presidential Guard—expanded by the United States to 3,500 men and loyal to Mahmoud Abbas—was being positioned to take control of Gaza.
On 10 June 2007, the Fatah–Hamas conflict culminated in clashes between Fatah-allied forces and Hamas-allied forces. The primary Fatah forces were the Palestinian National Security Forces, particularly the Presidential Guard. The main force of Hamas was the Executive Force. Hamas militants seized several Fatah members and threw one of them, Mohammed Sweirki, an officer in the Presidential Guard, off the top of the tallest building in Gaza, a 15-story apartment building. In retaliation, Fatah militants attacked and killed the Imam of the city's Great Mosque, Mohammed al-Rifati. They also opened fire on the home of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh. Just before midnight, a Hamas militant was thrown off a 12-story building.
On 11 June, gunmen opened fire on the Palestinian cabinet building while the government was meeting inside. Fatah gunmen fired shots at the residence of Prime Minister Ismail Haniya, of Hamas, in Gaza City, but no casualties were reported.
On 12 June, Hamas began attacking posts held by their Fatah rivals. Hundreds of Hamas fighters had moved on the positions after giving their occupants two hours to leave. A major Fatah base in the northern town of Jabalia fell to Hamas fighters, witnesses told AFP news agency. Heavy fighting also raged around the main Fatah headquarters in Gaza City, with Hamas militants attacking with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons.
On 13 June, Hamas attacked the headquarters of the Palestinian National Security Forces in northern Gaza. Gunmen fought for control of high-rise buildings serving as sniper positions, and Hamas said it had bulldozed a Fatah outpost controlling Gaza's main north–south road. Also on that day, an explosion wrecked the Khan Yunis headquarters of the Fatah-linked Palestinian Preventive Security, killing five people.