RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
In Gaza, Hamas militants are working to reassert their control of the battered territory. Now that the Israeli offensive is over, Hamas has been cleaning up debris and handing out money to the wounded and the homeless. They're also accused of cracking down on their political opponents, sometimes brutally. From Gaza, NPR's Eric Westervelt has our story.
ERIC WESTERVELT: Ahmed Youssif is one of the few Hamas leaders who dares to appear in public here these days. Most of the rest are still living underground, fearful of Israeli assassination attempts. Youssif seems in an oddly giddy mood this day, as he surveys the rubble piles near the Rafah tunnels along the border with Egypt. Tunnels that Palestinians already have started to dig out, rebuild and, in a few spots, re-open.
AHMED YOUSSIF: This means that the Phoenix rises again from the ashes.
WESTERVELT: Hamas loyalists are walking the drab corridors and recovery rooms in al-Shifa Hospital, passing out brightly-colored envelopes of cash to the wounded. Fisherman Imad al-Najar grimaces in pain, half-conscious, and IV stuck in his arm. He was shot in the chest and shoulder on the last day of the Israeli offensive. His brother Nader says the family is grateful for the Hamas help.
NADER AL: (speaking Arabic) (Through translator) We thank our brothers in Hamas for their efforts, although we know there are limited resources for them to give us.
WESTERVELT: Hamas police officers are back on the streets, never mind that they and other government workers here have no useable or safe places to work. Ihab al-Ghusain is with the Hamas Interior Ministry, which had its building and its minister annihilated in Israeli airstrikes.
IHAB AL: Even if we don't have buildings, we have difficulties. But we didn't stop, and we're still in charge.
WESTERVELT: Hamas is also affirming that it's still in charge in other, more brutal ways.
ABDUL KAREEM: (Speaking Arabic)
WESTERVELT: Abdul Kareem says a few days into the cease-fire, Hamas security men suddenly grabbed him from behind as he entered Shifa Hospital to visit a wounded friend. The Hamas men, he says, then took him to a building under construction next to the hospital where they beat him senseless. There was no questioning or interrogation, he says, they just clobbered him until he was half-conscious.
KAREEM: (speaking Arabic) (Through translator) They hit me with their hands. They beat me with pieces of metal and thick, wooden rods. They beat me up and hadn't asked me any questions. I asked them, why are you beating me? Why am I here? And every time I started to talk, they just said, shut your mouth, don't say a word, and beat me more and more.
WESTERVELT: Thirty-year-old Abdul Kareem acknowledges he was active in Fatah, Hamas's bitter political opponent, whose members were violently run out of Gaza by Hamas in 2007. But Abdul Kareem says he has no idea why Hamas abused him, other than to intimidate and send a message to potential rivals.
KAREEM: (Speaking Arabic) (Through translator) Hamas is trying to preserve its own state, its own authority. Even during the wartime, I think that their fighters were spending more time inside Gaza trying to preserve their own rule.
WESTERVELT: He's also investigating dozens of cases of arbitrary arrests, as well as six political killings. The investigator says all attacks were carried out by Hamas militants against Fatah activists and political opponents in the last three weeks. Eric Westervelt, NPR News Gaza City.