GAZA CITY: “The Sheikh is doing fine,” says a burly and bearded bodyguard outside the simple home of Ahmed Yassin, the spiritual leader of the Hamas movement, “but nobody is allowed to see him.” Just the day before a street battle had raged outside the house, when party activists protested against the house arrest the Palestinian Authority (PA) has imposed on their 65-year old and wheelchair bound idol. One of the protesters, 21-year old Mohammed Selmi got killed. “No we don’t fear for the Sheikh’s safety,” says the bodyguard, “we are here to protect him and we trust in God.” He says that the police has pulled back and allows Hamas itself to oversee the slightly relaxed house arrest. “We do not want a confrontation,” says the bodyguard.

That seems to be the new motto in the Palestinian areas. During the week brief clashes still took place over the PA’s crackdown on fighters responsible for attacks on Israel. By the weekend both sides seem to have come to an accommodation it seems. Even if there’s still no love lost between them, the Palestinian factions seem determined not to slide into civil war.

Just after the Friday noon prayers the funeral procession of the killed Hamas-activist, Selmi, leaves the Central Mosque in Gaza on its way to the cemetery just outside town. When the several hundred mourners come across a bureau of the Palestinian Preventive Security, they unleash their anger. The furious crowd pelts the office with stones and some try to break into the compound until Hamas minders restore calm.

“Palestinian blood is sacred,” says a prominent young Hamas-activist who only wants to give his name as Abu Ahmad, “We will not allow a new confrontation between us and the Authority.” He points out that, other than usual, the Hamas-activists do not carry arms at the funeral procession. “There will be no more shooting.”

The mourners who accompany the body are clearly in a less conciliatory mood. They voice their opposition to the PA’s arrests among Islamist militants by chanting; “Hamas, break the jails and escape.” There are also warnings not to touch their leader, Sheikh Yassin.

Abu Ahmad says he is confident that Hamas will come out of this crisis strengthened. “In 1996 we were also suppressed. In the aftermath our support grew massively because we just consistently followed our own policies and did not confront the PA, we did not initiate a civil war.”

This statement evinces a gruff dismissal when related to Ahmed Helles, Secretary General of Yasser Arafat’s Fatah party in the Gaza Strip and commander of its Tanzim-group. “The people are very emotional at the moment, under the current circumstances, you cannot read a political tendency into that.” Helles has arranged to meet away from his office, which has been targeted by Israeli missiles twice in the past. “What’s stopping them from doing it again?” he asks. In the hallway of the apartment that belongs to a family member, a Tanzim-guard is toting a machine gun. “Of course he is still carrying a gun,” Helles answers when asked about the new gun control rules the PA has imposed. Nobody apart from the police is allowed to carry guns in public anymore. “Do you think I will hand in my pistol?” he laughs, patting his belt.

Israel has declared the Tanzim-group a terrorist organization in the wake of the suicide attacks in Jerusalem and Haifa. The Tanzim has not been known to carry out bombings inside Israeli territory. Fatah-linked gunmen have carried out shooting attacks, though, both inside Israel and on settlers and soldiers on the West Bank and in The Gaza Strip.

“I don’t like such classifications,” says Helles about the terrorism charge. He seems not too displeased, though, that the Tanzim has been given a place alongside the groups in the pantheon of Palestinian resistance. “Everybody always talks about Hamas and Jihad but we do exactly the same.”

The direction of the intifada, the uprising against Israel, may be adjusted slightly, says Helles, because of all the international pressure at the moment. “It has happened in the past, when it was deemed necessary for our national goals the tactics were adjusted,” he says, admitting that Arafat has influenced the course of the intifada.

Helles thinks all the pressure on Arafat to deal with the fighters is absurd. The PA and the resistance, he says, are one. “Just imagine that the Israeli’s will also designate the PA a terrorist organization, what are they supposed to do then, commit suicide?” —Dawn/InterPress Service.