Smart leaders of the Islamic Hamas movement grasped a gold opportunity produced by a deadly Gaza bomb attack to wield a dominant influence over the Gaza Strip, analysts said.

The arrests carried out by Hamas security forces and its armed wing obviously are aimed at putting an end to any military presence of Fatah and getting rid of any future armed threats to Hamas in the Gaza Strip, they said.

Hamas leaders began to crack down on its rival Fatah movement immediately after the attack on a Hamas militants' car near Gaza city beach on July 25 which killed five Hamas militants and a little girl.

The Saturday assault of Hamas security forces and its armed wing al-Qassam Brigades on the pro-Fatah Helles clan in Sheja'eya neighborhood in eastern Gaza City was apparently part of a wide plan to end any presence of Fatah in the enclave.

"Regardless of who is behind Gaza bomb attack on Friday July 25,Hamas picked up the opportunity to accuse Fatah movement before carrying out any investigation to crack down on militants, who are considered as a threat to its rule in Gaza," said Ra'ed Abu Eyada,a Palestinian political analyst.

A few hours after the bomb attack, Hamas started to implement aplan "which seems to be prepared in advance" to weaken its rival Fatah movement and to "apparently exert a pressure on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to accept unconditioned resumption of dialogue," he added.

The new internal rift, consequently, poses a grave threat to the dialogue which was initiated by Abbas in June to reconcile feuding Palestinian factions including Hamas and scheduled to be held in the Egyptian capital of Cairo in August.

Ambitious strategy

The latest heavy fighting between Hamas and Fatah movements is anything but new. Hamas movement founded in 1987 has harvested a large popular support at the expense of Fatah and other political groups.

Year after year, radical Hamas depends on suicide bombing against Israel to earn popularity among Palestinians suffering from decades-old insecurity, which is deemed as a cut-throat competition with Fatah, a secular and dominant Palestinian force.