Here's why the violence has increased....

Palestinian infighting is what's behind the surge in violence.

A Palestinian journalist asked an armed Hamas militant yesterday why his organization had suddenly begun to fire Qassam rockets again after two months of quiet. His answer: "Do you know how many Qassams we have? What are we going to do with them next month, after disengagement?"

Some people say that six months after being manufactured, the Qassams explode by themselves. If so, it might explain the urgency Hamas suddenly feels to get rid of them. But the issue behind the escalation of violence is fundamentally one of internal Palestinian competition.

The main competition, between Hamas, and the Palestinian Authority and Fatah, expressed itself in Thursday's firing of missiles at the exact hour PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas arrived in the Gaza Strip. "The agreement for a truce and a halt to the firing of Qassams was part of a package deal with the PA, which included reforms, a struggle against corruption, and local and parliamentary elections," a Hamas activist said yesterday. "The PA broke its part of the bargain when it put off elections for the Legislative Council and annuled the results of the local elections in Rafah."

The agreement was made during a period when Hamas and the PA had a balance of power, the activist said. But now, "the PA can't afford to put down Hamas the way it did in 1996, although [Interior Minister] Nasser Yousef is trying." He said that instead of regarding Friday's clashes in Gaza City between Hamas and the PA which resulted in the deaths of two youths and the wounding of several others as a local skirmish, he "made things worse" with his declaration of a state of emergency and the deployment of armored vehicles into the Zeitun and Sabra neighborhoods. "We didn't see the armored jeeps protecting the Gaza residents when the Israelis invaded," the activist said. "Hamas couldn't keep quiet in the face of this escalation and the attempt of the PA to breach the balance between the forces."

The Hamas activist, who says he personally opposes both the firing of rockets at this time and shooting at PA forces, added, "But if Hamas youths learned from anyone to make their political demands with their weapons, it was from Fatah and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades."