Chinks in the Hamas armor

The cashier at the Unity Market in Gaza City pulled up video of last week's deadly Arafat memorial rally on his computer and cursed the Hamas gunmen who opened fire on the crowd, killing at least seven.

"I went to the rally not to support Fatah or Yasser Arafat, but to send a message to the whole international community that we don't want Hamas," said the shopkeeper who gave his name only as Ala'. "I hate them because of what they did at the rally."

Then, suddenly, the man went quiet, put his finger to his lip and shook his head.

In walked a thin man with a black shirt, black jeans and a well-cropped red beard. The store owner kept quiet until the Hamas member bought his bottle of cooking oil and left. Then he returned to cursing Hamas.

"How do you want me to love or respect Hamas?" said Ala', who voted for Hamas in last year's election. "It's only a matter of fear."

Across the Gaza Strip, there is growing frustration and resentment as life for the 1.5 million Palestinians remains mired in a swamp of economic and political despair.

More than five months into its unilateral control of Gaza, Hamas is slowly losing its grip on the main thing the Islamist forces brought when they took power in mid-June: Security.

Fatah forces have been riled by last week's violent Hamas response to the rally. Gaza gangs have resumed the occasional bombing of cafes, restaurants and DVD stores. And the Army of Islam, the group behind the kidnapping of BBC reporter Alan Johnston, reportedly briefly abducted two Hamas members involved in a personal feud.

There is clear and building anger in Gaza. But those who criticize Hamas still do so in the quiet of their homes. Although Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas last week called for ousting Hamas, few in Gaza are willing to publicly criticize the hard-line Islamist group.

Women in the market. Restaurant owners. Farmers. Sidewalk vendors. No one was willing to publicly criticize Hamas.

"People are afraid," said Ala'. "It needs time."

Not even Fatah militants in Gaza appear ready to publicly challenge Hamas.

"You cannot go into battle with Hamas," said a spokesman for one of the bigger Fatah militant groups in Gaza. "We don't want bloodshed."

Fatah fighters often argue that they don't challenge Hamas because they don't want to kill a Palestinian brother. The reality is more likely that Fatah militants don't have the will or the firepower to try to retake Gaza by force.

Inside the Hamas camp, strains have been showing. Internal divisions over political direction have become public squabbles. There are rumors of renewed bitter rivalries between Hamas pragmatists and hard-liners. But, just as they have been doing since they won control in democratic elections nearly two years ago, Hamas leaders are hunkering down.

Hamas leaders expect next week's Annapolis meeting to end in failure, something that could undermine Abbas and his pro-Western PM Salam Fayaad.

"It's like cycling without a chain," said Ahmed Yousef, the Western-educated political aide to deposed Hamas PM Ismail Haniyeh, who runs the temporary government in Gaza. "You exert a lot of effort but, in the end, you are standing in the same place. You exhaust yourself."

Leaders like Yousef know that, no matter what happens in Annapolis, Abbas and Fatah will have to resume talks with Hamas. Everyone understands that no peace deal can get very far without re-uniting the West Bank and Gaza Strip under one government.  So Hamas is containing dissent in Gaza and biding its time...