GAZA CITY: When Sobhi Abu Hasnain heard Osama bin Laden’s videotaped words on Sunday evening, evoking the Palestinian cause and swearing to God that Americans would not know security again, the Gaza cell phone dealer felt profoundly moved, he recalled on Thursday.

“I really, really felt that Islam was living in this man’s heart,” Hasnain said.

So Hasanin, 35, was shocked the following day when he saw Palestinian policemen fire on students demonstrating in favour of Osama.

“I saw it with my own eyes — nobody told me, I saw it,” he said, from his small shop across the street from where blood was spilled, killing two and wounding scores of others. “I was very upset. I was very mad.”

Much of his anger is directed at Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for turning his back on Osama and wanting to please the United States. “Instead of participating in a coalition against terrorism, why doesn’t he stop his police from using live ammunition against people?” he asked.

Most of all, he is angry that there is no real channel for his discontent. “The people here, and I myself, would like to see many changes on the ground,” he said. But Arafat “is not listening to the people in the street. He is only listening to the people around him.”

There are many people like Hasnain in Palestinian-controlled areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip these days, so many that Arafat’s officials worry. They have gone out of their way, in fact, to describe Monday’s shooting as an isolated incident that should not be repeated.

Leaders of Arafat’s Fatah movement, along with the more radical opposition factions Hamas, or Islamic Resistance Movement, and Islamic Jihad, have been meeting regularly to try to reduce internal tensions.

But the Palestinian streets are still simmering. “What I saw on the street was a shame — as a Palestinian, I felt ashamed,” said Mahmoud Abu Khalid, office manager for a European-funded port project, whose office sits in clear view of the site where the shooting occurred. “It’s exactly like what the Israeli army does. I am shocked to see Palestinians killed by Palestinians.”

After Monday’s deaths, top officials of the Fatah faction have been distancing themselves from the police actions. —Dawn/The Washington Post News Service.