Terror in Gaza

Among those who did not cheer four years ago when Israeli troops swept into the Gaza Strip was Defense Minister Moshe Dayan. "Gaza is more of a problem than a gift," said Dayan of the former Egyptian occupied territory, which stretches along the Mediterranean south and west of Israel. Events since then have proved him right. Israel connected Gaza to its electric grid, drummed up potential business and even encouraged tourism to aid the territory. But Gaza's 390,000 residents were--and still are--unremittingly hostile. So far this year seven Israelis and 206 Arabs have been killed in the Strip. Last week alone seven Arab guerrillas were shot to death, two of them killed in a fight at the Shati camp, one of eight United Nations refugee camps in the Strip.

Harsh Clampdown. One reason for Israel's failure to pacify Gaza is the nature of the land. It is an elongated, desperately poor 25-mile finger of desert, which has little more than citrus groves in the way of resources. Some 11,000 Gazans have found work in Jordan's occupied West Bank and 5,500 others in Israel itself. But the Palestinian who "collaborates" with the Israelis is a marked man. Last February, 61 Arabs were wounded when guerrillas blew up the main post office in the town of Gaza where they were cashing their Israeli paychecks.

To curtail terrorism, the Israelis imposed curfews, increased military patrols and searches of Arab population. Currently the Israelis are trying to thin out the population of the crowded camps; in the Jabalia camp, where this year alone some 40 Arabs have been murdered, presumably by Palestinian guerrillas, 1,500 people have been moved to other quarters. In addition, a 9-ft-high fence topped with barbed wire is being built on the 25-mile eastern perimeter of the Strip.

Senseless Episode. What stirred the Israelis to these measures was not only the persistence of terrorist activities, but also a particularly senseless episode of violence that occurred early in the year (see box). The Arabs of Gaza, however, reacted bitterly to the mass punishment that was meted out. Their mood now, as a result, is a mixture of fright, frustration and resentment.

Said one Palestinian at the Shati refugee camp: "All I ask are equal rights and my home." A small landowner, he fled from Ashkelon during the 1948 war; 23 years later, he still considers Gaza a temporary abode. "If it is impossible for me to return to my land and to the graves of my family," he insists, "it is better for me to be thrown into the sea."

Last week Dayan made another of his frequent visits to Gaza. Dressed in fatigues and a crumpled hat, he watched Israeli soldiers thinning out the refugee camps. Dayan witnessed nothing to alter his opinion of the situation in Gaza: "It is tough, and I do not see an immediate solution."

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