With the departure of their common Israeli enemy, inter-Palestinian divisions could flare up into fresh bloodshed, militants in the impoverished Gaza Strip warned.
"If the Palestinian Authority cannot meet the people's basic needs, there will be a new intifada not against Israel but among ourselves," said Fathi Hamad, a local leader of radical movement Hamas in the Jabaliya refugee camp.
"There will be a huge popular uprising. Hamas is preparing for mass demonstrations," he predicted.
As a Hamas leader in Gaza's largest and most poverty-ridden camp, one of the areas that has suffered most during the five years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting, Hamad said the Palestinian Authority only speaks for some of the people. He predicted victory for Hamas in January's legislative elections, the first time the Islamist movement has run in parliamentary polls.
"We are a part of this people and we have to participate in the Palestinian government, even though Europe and the US are against this. Our leaders cannot impose anything on us," he said.
Although the radical movement will fight for its right to participate in government, Hamad said it will never raise a hand against Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas whose Fatah party dominates the administration.
"We will never use weapons against Mahmud Abbas," he vowed. "The government is not our enemy."
Although Hamas boycotted the presidential election in January, won decisively by Abbas, its leadership decided earlier this year to contest the parliamentary vote.
Last month, the overall Hamas leader in its Gaza Strip stronghold, Mahmud Zahar, said the movement no longer had any confidence in the Palestinian Authority, stressing: "We will not allow anyone to disarm us."
Hamas's rival Islamic Jihad has also rejected US demands for the Palestinian Authority to rid militant groups of their weapons.
"We saw more American interference in Palestinian affairs and that America wants a Palestinian civil war," said a Jihad leader in Gaza, Khaled el-Batsh.
For Hamad, the Palestinians face two challenges now that Israel has abandoned its 21 Jewish settlements in Gaza and is on the cusp of ending its 38-year occupation: reconstruction and resistance.
"The Palestinian Authority has to be very clear about whether it can improve the education system, modernize infrastructure and increase job creation in order to normalize life for the people."
In the narrow streets of Jabaliya, which is home to some 120,000 people, photographs of "martyrs" vie for space with Hamas posters glorifying the resistance and proclaiming victory over the now departed settlers.
"I saw the settlers leaving and thought: for the first time in history, the Palestinians of Gaza can feel happy. I also remembered those who have died so that this could take place," Hamad admitted, recalling his brother who was killed during one of the army's many raids on Jabaliya.
The land, he said, was reclaimed as a result of "the resistance and not negotiation" meaning that continuing the armed struggle is essential.
"The Israeli withdrawal would have happened all the same whether Abbas or Yasser Arafat was in power," he said, referring to the late Palestinian president. "The settlers left because their soldiers were dying every day and they couldn't put up with it any more."
But since the last settlers packed their bags earlier this week, little has changed in the impoverished alleys of Jabaliya.
"We are in one big prison which Israel is controlling by land, air and sea. So we must continue our resistance," Hamad said. "We are the owners of this land and although the United States supports Israel, we will have our state."
Although Hamas largely maintained an unofficial truce during the week-long evacuation, the Israeli army's killing of five militants in the West Bank Wednesday has raised tensions.
"If they continue killing us and carrying on settling the West Bank, controlling our borders and our economy, and cutting off the air we breathe, we will not be able to continue much longer without reacting," Hamid warned.
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