Hamas tightens its grip a year after seizing Gaza

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2008

GAZA CITY (AFP) — A year after Hamas's bloody seizure of power in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian enclave is sealed off and under siege, fuel is in short supply and poverty is rampant.

But the Islamist movement remains defiant even as Israel prepares for a widescale assault while still holding off on a major operation to give Egyptian-mediated truce efforts a chance.

A crippling Israeli-imposed embargo and almost daily military raids have failed to end Hamas attacks on the Jewish state 12 months after a deep rift with the moderate Palestinian government led the Islamists to set up their own administration in Gaza.

The days leading up to June 15, 2007 saw atrocities of unprecedented ferocity including rival fighters thrown to their deaths from rooftops as...