Battered by Israel, Hamas faces tough choice

But Hamas, which seized control of Gaza after a unity government with rival Fatah fell apart in 2007, is operating in a hemmed-in landscape tattered by airstrikes and limned with smoke and suspicion. Days and nights are spent attempting to outmaneuver Israeli forces and to control Fatah sympathizers or alleged collaborators, scores of whom are under house arrest or have been systematically shot in the legs. Hamas fighters recently stormed an Internet cafe in Deir al Balah and hauled away a man accused of spying.

Despite political and military barrages on many fronts, Hamas' political wing, led by Khaled Mashaal from his base in Syria, is still intact, denouncing Israel in speeches and dispatching delegations to Egypt to negotiate a possible cease-fire. Most of its top officials in Gaza, however, have gone underground and may be too isolated to assess the severity of the conflict. Yet civil duties, such as traffic control in some towns, are being carried out, the Hamas-led government has prevented price gouging, and the movement's radio and TV stations are broadcasting.

"The breakdown is far less complete than what one sees watching the TV or what Israel had hoped for," said Mouin Rabbani, a Jordanian-based analyst and expert on Hamas. He added that the enclave's infrastructure had been pounded, but that its civil and political leadership have retained "their capacity to control the Gaza Strip. . . . I can't believe anyone in the Israeli government seriously thinks they can eradicate Hamas."

The question is: How much longer can Hamas and Gaza's 1.5 million Palestinians endure the Israeli offensive? About 880 Palestinians, more than a third of them women and children, have been killed. That number and sustained Israeli military pressure have left Hamas with difficult choices. Neither side has shown interest in a cease-fire, but if Hamas were to agree to one without winning Israeli concessions, such as ending the 18-month blockade of Gaza, there probably will be criticism that weeks of bloodshed and ruin brought nothing. But if Hamas keeps fighting, what can it expect to win from an enemy with a superior military?

"Hamas is thinking that after all the attacks and the deaths of so many, they want something to show for it and not to return to the same point they were at in the beginning," Adnan abu Hasna, spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in Gaza, told Israeli radio. "I think Hamas feels that if they accept a cease-fire now, this will be an even greater defeat than the military defeat."