The Economist, 3 Feb 07: The Gazafication of the West Bank
...As the PA crumbles under fratricidal conflict and the pressure of foreign economic sanctions, the lawlessness has prompted the powerful Palestinian clans (which are not generally loyal to any one party) to see to their own security. Nablus's Dweikat clan recently posted flyers warning that it will retaliate for any attacks on members of the extended family, and has drawn up a list of young armed men that it can call on.

That is a recipe for something nasty. A clan like the Dweikats, with 30,000 members, can be a militia in itself. Clan feuds now drive a lot of the seemingly political fighting in Gaza, and they seem to be intensifying in the West Bank too. Aid workers in Hebron, the main town in the southern bit of the West Bank, say that political clashes there are still rare but arms prices have rocketed, as people buy more guns to protect themselves. In December the police shooting of a teenager prompted his relatives to burn down the police station and kidnap several officers, whose own families then sent in reinforcements, leading to a stand-off that took a week and the intervention of presidential troops to end....