The fighting between Hamas and Fatah militants hasn't played out just in the streets of the Gaza Strip. The rivals also pummeled each other over the airwaves with such epithets as "mercenary death squads," "child killers" and "Zionists." The rhetoric, coupled with the stations' power to quickly rally their armed supporters in the streets, has led to fears that the broadcasters could fan the flames into full-blown civil war. "If we wanted, we could burn down Gaza," said a smiling Ibrahim Daher, director of Aqsa Radio, the Gaza voice of Islamic Hamas. Fatah has been locked in a power struggle with Hamas since losing legislative elections in January, which handed Hamas control of most of the Palestinian government. The tensions have routinely erupted into fighting, most recently after a drive-by shooting Dec. 11 which killed the children of a senior security official loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah. That round of fighting killed 17 people. For the next two weeks, Hamas' Aqsa Radio and Fatah's Radio Shabab enthralled listeners as they reported fierce clashes and angry marches, and gave air time for callers and leaders to abuse their opponents.
On Radio Shabab, callers described Hamas gunmen as "child killers" - a reference to the drive-by shooting - or as "the mullahs" - a jab at Hamas' close ties to Shiite Iran. Hamas' Aqsa Radio rarely reported Hamas gunmen's deadly assaults on Fatah targets. The broadcasts regularly labeled opponents as "mercenary death squads" and "coup plotters." One senior Hamas official called his rivals "Zionists" - tantamount to a death sentence in Gaza's militantly anti-Israel society. In another report, an Aqsa correspondent reported - falsely - that Fatah gunmen were firing at their own supporters in the southern town of Khan Younis.
"Radios play at incitement," said Daher. "There's no neutral radio in Gaza, it's all factional." Even so, Daher and all the other stations said they tried not to incite people against each other.
Ibrahim Abu Naja, head of a mediation committee that got Hamas and Fatah to halt fighting, saw things differently. "We are aware of how major a role radio plays in creating tensions and provoking fighting," he said. Abu Naja said he repeatedly demanded that radio stations tone down their rhetoric.