 Palestinians predicted Yasser Arafat's illness and sudden departure for France guarantee a period of uncertainty for the future of the Palestinians and Mideast politics. The departure of Arafat has fueled talk in the street of more internal unrest. Strife in Gaza has already resulted in gunbattles and kidnappings as factional rivals vie for power. "Should the president die, we will go through a transitional period in which we will see clashes," said moneychanger Sufian Adawi. Some Palestinian officials predicted rising tensions within Arafat's fractious Fatah movement, but not open conflict, and the main Islamic militant group Hamas, which opposes peacemaking with Israel, called for Palestinian unity. "I do see there is going to be some tension between some of the individuals in Fatah, the current ruling group ... But I don't think it will spill out into the streets, although I could be naive," said a PLO adviser.
| I'm oiling up the old adding machine to try and keep track of the corpse count. I'm sure the Paleos won't disappoint me. |
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