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Mother in Gaza: 'Enough is enough'

By Atika Shubert
CNN

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GAZA CITY (CNN) -- On Monday morning, Baha Balousheh kissed his three sons goodbye and sent them off to school. From his children's bedroom window, he watched them drive away in their chauffeured car.

Moments later, Balousheh says, gunmen opened fire on the vehicle, killing 9-year-old Osama, 6-year-old Ahmed and 3-year-old Salam.

"I named the youngest one Salam, meaning peace. I hoped there would be peace. But now Salam has taken that peace to God," said Balousheh, who is a senior intelligence official from Fatah.

"I hope that this is the last killing."

Gaza is used to violence, but the murders of Balousheh's children marks a dangerous turning point in the Palestinian struggle for statehood: This time it's Palestinians killing Palestinians.

When Israel withdrew from Gaza in August 2005, Palestinians envisioned a bright future: Gaza for Palestinians, run by Palestinians -- free of violence and Israeli occupation.

Instead, Gaza has become a battleground in a power struggle between the Islamic militants of Hamas, led by Prime Minister Ismail Haniya on one side and the armed gunmen of Fatah on the other, loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas.

The two factions are locked in a power struggle for control of the Palestinian government and attempts to forge a coalition have failed.

Balousheh and his wife, Linda, stopped short of blaming Hamas for the deaths of their children, but did say the killings were likely to have been carried out by political rivals.

"Sometimes the very people who condemn the killings are the same people who order the killings. While the people who actually carried it out roam free," Linda said, struggling to be heard over the wailing cries of women attending the mourning service for her children.

"The prime minister, the president, the whole world must know: Enough is enough. Our children are not so cheap."

The escalating violence comes at a time when Gaza's economy has been hit hard. In the face of crippling international sanctions, the Hamas-led Palestinian government has collected millions of dollars to keep the government operating on fundraising trips to other countries in the region.

The United States and the European Union, which had provided millions each year to keep the Palestinian Authority afloat, cut off money after Hamas won elections in January and took over the government. Hamas has refused to recognize Israel's right to exist.

It has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.

The killing of the Balousheh children triggered an escalation in political violence. Two days later a local Hamas militia leader was shot dead on his way to work.

Tensions grew on Thursday night when gunmen opened fire on the convoy of Prime Minister Haniya as he was returning from Egypt to Gaza. The prime minister's son was wounded in the attack, and one of his personal bodyguards was killed.

Hamas blamed Fatah for the attack, demanding that Abbas take immediate and harsh action against his own security forces.

Hamas on Friday staged a show of force calling tens of thousands of supporters onto the streets of Gaza City. Armed Hamas militants stood guard at street corners wearing black masks pulled down over their faces. (Full story)

A senior Hamas leader, Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar, told CNN that Hamas would continue to deploy its own forces to quell the violence and oppose anyone who challenged Hamas' authority.

"We have the popular power. Ask any one of the people on the street. We have the military power. We have the moral power." Zahar said.

Palestinians are now bracing themselves for the possibility of still more turbulence. Despite the rising tensions, government officials say Abbas will press ahead with a Saturday speech calling for early elections in an attempt to break the political impasse with Hamas.

Hamas has rejected the idea, saying Abbas does not have the legal authority.

"If he is tired, he should resign. And we will help to run an election for president," Zahar said. "But in speaking about elections for the legislative council, he has no role whatsoever."

Many Palestinians are shocked and dismayed at the internecine bloodshed that has stained the streets of Gaza, but few expect the killing to end. The brutal murder of the Balousheh children, in particular, has touched a nerve with the Palestinian public.

As hundreds gathered at the Balousheh home to mourn, one grieving woman said, "I am sure that whoever killed these children came to this house to offer condolences. We must find out who did this."

She cried, "Why are we Palestinians killing each other?"

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