Hamas was surprised by the easy and swift defeat of Fatah in the fighting that took place in the Gaza Strip, Hamas representative Ayman Taha said over the weekend. Taha, who is one of the Hamas officials in the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, said most Fatah militiamen and security officers decided not to fight when they learned that their leaders had fled to the West Bank and Egypt. "We did not have any intention to win or lose the battle," he explained. "We were only going against a small group that was behind all the trouble and tensions in the Gaza Strip."
Hamas, he added, did not think of a military victory when it waged its campaign. "What happened came also as a surprise to Hamas," he said. "We in Hamas were surprised not only by the major victory, but by the stunning defeat of Fatah. The Palestinian Authority was also surprised and is still in a state of shock. In fact, the entire world was surprised by the collapse of Fatah."