FOUR green flags of the extremist Palestinian party Hamas were flying last week at the gate of a military training camp built on the ruins of Morag, a Jewish settlement evacuated eight months ago when Israel withdrew its troops from Gaza.

Inside the camp, recruits to the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, ran mock attacks over dunes covered in dry grass. One of them stopped to launch a rocket-propelled grenade.

This is not some clandestine force. Last Tuesday, on the day Israelis went to the polls, the Palestinian parliament approved a cabinet of ministers chosen by Hamas.

The Israeli elections were won by the centrist new Kadima party of Ehud Olmert, the acting prime minister. Israelis frustrated with polarised politics warmed to his promise to withdraw from large swathes of the occupied West Bank, whether or not he has an agreement with the Palestinians.

Any negotiations with a Palestinian government now have to be conducted with Hamas and the view from the camp dunes made that appear unlikely. There was certainly no sign that Hamas would meet Israel’s demand that it must disarm before any talks take place.

The base is no makeshift encampment. A telecommunications tower rises from a dune; loudspeakers broadcast from masts. Israelis contemplating the evacuation of West Bank settlements will shiver at the discovery that al-Qassam fighters now live and train on the ruins of a place that was home to 37 Jewish families until Israel pulled out of Gaza in August. The army razed Morag when it left.

The stones of the old homes have been painted white and used to make guardhouses. Even the settlement’s gate has been cannibalised; it now swings open to Toyota pick-up trucks bringing more armed men in uniform.

A senior al-Qassam member explained that their mission to fight Israel had not changed, even though Hamas had become the official government. We met late at night in Gaza City, under a date palm in the middle of a field behind a mosque. He was oddly pedantic for a large man in a camouflage uniform and bullet-proof vest, a black balaclava over his head.

“Not to oversimplify, but Palestinians have the legitimate right to resist occupation,” he said. “Al-Qassam will remain a resistance and will continue to be active.”

His men, armed with Kalashnikovs, ringed the shadowy field. Shots erupted near an adjacent mosque and an explosion sounded a few blocks away. Neither interrupted his expressionless voice. He said the group’s “production unit” was working flat out to manufacture grenades and anti-tank missiles.

Despite its armed faction, the political leadership of Hamas has been sounding more conciliatory towards Israel, saying that it would negotiate if Israel agreed to withdraw to its borders of 1967, when it seized the West Bank and Gaza. This is a non-starter for Israel, however.

Olmert has made clear he will wait about four months before he decides to withdraw unilaterally but Hamas appears to be in no hurry. Its leaders believe that although Israel has tanks and planes, they have God on their side and that will give them victory in the long run. It does not make for modern politics.

Hamas’s rejectionist stance means that Olmert will find it easier to execute a unilateral withdrawal. But the radical Palestinian leadership is just one of the problems facing him.

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