‘Condoleezza! This is Hamas. You must deal with us now’

A MASKED Hamas fighter sat down at Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s desk yesterday and declared an end to the Western-backed authority in the Gaza Strip — in an imaginary telephone call to the United States.

“Hello Condoleezza Rice. You have to deal with me now, there is no Abu Mazen (Abbas) anymore,” the fighter from the Islamist movement’s armed wing Izz el-Deen al-Qassam joked as he spoke into the telephone on Abbas’s desk.

Following days of factional violence in which well over 100 Palestinians have been killed, Gaza is, in effect, a new, schismatic statelet under Hamas control.

Abbas is effectively banished from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank, where his secular Fatah faction has its powerbase.

In Abbas’s office, the fighter, clutching his AK47 assault rifle, eased into the president’s chair while he and his fellow masked gunmen took pictures of themselves.

He then strolled into Abbas’s bedroom next to the office, washed his face and hands and looked at himself in the mirror before drinking mineral water from a bottle reserved for the president.

The Qassam Brigades had spread their control over the Gaza Strip, occupying Fatah security compounds including those of Abbas’s presidential guards — who surrendered the president’s office without a fight.

It was a surprise for many Gazans, who expected a tough fight between Hamas gunmen and the American-backed force.

“We dedicate this victory to our people,” Hamas’s armed wing said in a statement.

The move by Hamas was greeted with joy among the group’s supporters, but created doubt among the strip’s 1.5 million population over the future of the territory, which is suffering deep economic hardship.

Hamas began a crackdown against Fatah in the southern Gaza Strip towns of Khan Younis and Rafah as gunmen patrolled the streets and called on their Fatah rivals to hand over their weapons. Witnesses said hundreds of arms had been collected.

The action by Hamas rekindled memories of the major crackdown Fatah conducted against the Islamist faction in 1996, when hundreds of Hamas men were detained.

“The 1996 era has gone. Islam rules here,” said a Hamas gunmen.

“We took the authority,” another said as he seized a vehicle belonging to a Fatah member.