http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1068112/posts "Hamas preparing to seize West Bank, Gaza"
WorldNetDaily.com ^ | Friday, January 30, 2004
Posted on 01/29/2004 11:43:55 PM PST by JohnHuang2
ARTICLE SNIPPET: "JERUSALEM ? Hamas has established a military force in a drive to take over the West Bank and Gaza Strip from the Palestinian Authority, reports Geostrategy-Direct, the global intelligence news service.
A new report asserts Hamas, with quiet Egyptian support, is bracing to inherit control of Palestinian society from the PA, dominated by the ruling Fatah movement.
The report traced the decline of the Fatah movement led by PA Chairman Yasser Arafat, and the rise of Hamas influence.
"Hamas has established its own army in the Gaza Strip as a source of power and strength in opposition to the Palestinian Authority, in the understanding that the force that controls the strip is the one that will actually succeed the Palestinian Authority," stated the report by the Jerusalem-based Institute for Contemporary Affairs.
"Already, Hamas is copying the relationship of Hezbollah to the Lebanese government as it fashions its approach to the Palestinian Authority."
The report, authored by researcher Jonathan Halevi, did not detail Hamas's military. But Israeli security sources said Hamas's Izzedin Kassam has thousands of operatives and supporters and includes a military industry that produces mortars, short-range missiles and anti-tank rockets."