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All three networks covered the warfare in the Gaza Strip, although none from Gaza itself: Mark Phillips from London for CBS, Wilf Dinnick (subscription required) from Jerusalem for ABC, Tom Aspell from Tel Aviv from NBC. Aspell did manage to obtain a discouraging soundbite from a Palestinian journalist on the scene: "Sorry to tell you, there is no place to hide," Hamsi al-Atar reported. "If someone wants to kill you there is no place to hide, from both sides." Most of the Strip's 1.5m residents are "hiding in their homes," ABC's Winnick told us. "The gunmen now control Gaza. The police have fled and armed militias now rule the streets."
The fighting between Hamas and Fatah escalated into all-out civil war, CBS' Phillips reported, when a Fatah rocket hit the home of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, leader of Hamas. Fatah is led by Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Palestinian Authority, and has 80,000 soldiers in Gaza. Yet, Phillips pointed out, "the more militant Hamas has a highly trained and motivated militia of 6,000 that has been overrunning some of Fatah's strategic strongholds." NBC's Aspell, too, concluded that Fatah was defeated: "Hamas all but owns the Gaza Strip and Israel and the United States will now have to deal with the more radical Palestinian group on anything concerning Gaza."
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