GAZA CITY — Messages spray-painted by the Palestinian militant group Hamas adorn the walls on both sides of Palestine Street. Along one wall, the mural shows heavily armed combatants and declares that suicide bombers pave the road to liberation.
On the other side of the street, the graffiti read: "Hamas to the people: Your vote counts! Don't waste it!"
The death of Yasser Arafat on Thursday has given Hamas and other radical Islamic groups here a golden opportunity to join the political mainstream and reach levels of government previously hard to imagine.
Hamas, which was already planning on fielding candidates for local offices in upcoming municipal elections, is contemplating entering the race for a new Palestinian legislature. Although it probably would not make a run for the presidency, Hamas has demanded a share in the transitional regime, alongside Arafat's Fatah party and other mostly secular factions, that will lead the Palestinians until the elections are held.
Previously, Hamas boycotted elections in the Palestinian territories, refusing to recognize the 1993 Oslo peace agreement that established the Palestinian Authority. It rejected formal inclusion in the government and instead stoked Islamist fires to build an ever-growing opposition movement.
Gradually, over time and especially in the last four years of the latest intifada, or Palestinian uprising, the popularity of Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad -- and of their hard-line, anti-Israeli positions -- has soared. Apart from their military prowess, the Islamists are a political force that the Palestinian establishment cannot afford to ignore, analysts and officials say.
"This is the best opportunity for Hamas to enter the Palestinian Authority," Mohammed Ahmad, a Hamas supporter and an engineering student at Gaza's Islamic University, said outside the Palestine Mosque where he came for prayers. "The only competition to Hamas was Yasser Arafat."
Under Palestinian law, elections to replace Arafat as president of the Palestinian Authority must be held within 60 days of his death.
Hamas militants are responsible for most of the suicide bombings that have killed more than 1,000 Israelis in the last decade. Despite their demand to be included in a future government, they do not appear ready to renounce their more radical ideas, including their belief that Israel should not be allowed to exist.
