Dead Man Walking; With Gaza degenerating into Somalia-like chaos, a Hamas security chief faces enemies close to home.(Cover story)

Byline: Kevin Peraino

As Yussef Al-Zahar's gray Mitsubishi pickup truck wends its way through the crowded streets of Gaza City, there is no obvious sign of the men who want him dead. "Quiet day," he says, glancing out the window during his regular afternoon patrol. At a busy intersection, he jumps out to chat briefly with a clutch of bearded, black-clad men cradling Kalashnikovs in the Gaza heat. But the field commander in the territory's Hamas-controlled "executive force" doesn't linger anywhere for long. "We have to expect anything," Zahar says once he's back in the truck and on the road again. "It's a battle of the gangsters now."

Gaza is a long way from the days when a militant knew clearly who his enemies were. At one time, Israeli troops seemed like Zahar's most formidable foe. They're still a grave danger, of course; just hours after Zahar's patrol last week, Israeli warplanes attacked the home of another Hamas leader elsewhere in the same neighborhood, killing two, including a 2-year-old girl. (By late last week the death toll had surged to 18 after more Israeli raids.) Yet the most immediate threat to Zahar's life might now come from his own countrymen. After ten Palestinians were killed and 100 wounded in running gun battles two weeks ago--the bloodiest episode of infighting since the Islamist group took power--Fatah militants issued a leaflet calling for the assassination of Zahar and two other key Hamas figures.

The power struggle has been intensifying for months now, fueled by frustration in Gaza over unpaid salaries and Israel's economic stranglehold. Add in an upsurge in crime, itself partly a byproduct of rampant unemployment, and the violence threatens to evolve into something altogether more amorphous. "We're getting close to Somalia," says a senior Palestinian intelligence officer, who didn't want to be identified discussing the strife.

The Fatah-Hamas tensions came to a head two weeks ago, when protesters began setting tires ablaze in downtown Gaza as a part of a demonstration over unpaid salaries. Zahar was at a bank nearby when the news crackled over his radio that fighting had erupted. "All hell broke loose," he says. Zahar claims he ordered his men to cease fire, but too late. He now calls the day "Black Sunday." Another 10 people were injured last Friday in continued clashes.

Such internecine violence is exactly what Zahar's 5,000-member paramilitary force was originally created to prevent. The group's leaders boast about its mixed membership; its ranks include members of Fatah and other Palestinian factions. And they insist the force has had some success fighting criminals like car thieves and counterfeiters. "We're getting very good at burglaries," says another of the unit's commanders, who didn't want to be identified for fear of retaliation from Gaza's armed gangs. Zahar, who says he's a fan of the television series "Columbo," seems to relish his new role as gumshoe. Still, he also admits he sometimes finds himself nostalgic for the more-orderly days of Yasir Arafat's rule. "At least he used to shut everyone up," says Zahar.

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