Using political violence be-tween Hamas and Fatah as cover, radical Islamists are bombing internet cafés, pool halls and chemists in Gaza to impose their own brand of fundamentalism.

Cybercafés have been singled out for allegedly allowing customers to download pornography. Chemists have been bombed for selling hallucinogens smuggled from Israel or through tunnels from Egypt, while pool halls are accused of encouraging immoral behaviour. A group calling itself the Swords of Islamic Righteousness is believed to have carried out more than a dozen attacks in recent weeks.

The previously unknown group issued a warning letter late last month threatening to “execute the laws of God”. It claimed responsibility for “shooting rocket-propelled grenades and planting bombs at internet cafés in Gaza, which are trying to make a whole generation preoccupied with matters other than jihad and worship”. The group also claimed unverifiable attacks on unveiled women, music shops and motorists playing loud music.

Many of Gaza’s backstreet internet cafés have closed after the attacks. Many of those still open told The Times that they were nervous about the Islamist threat. Security officials and human rights workers said that disintegrating law and order was also being exploited by gangsters and criminals. Women’s rights groups report an increase in “honour killings” of women suspected of adultery or immoral behaviour.

Police say that they are powerless to act or arrest those belonging to the powerful tribes behind much of the criminality, because members of the security forces are locked in a power struggle between President Abbas’s secular Fatah movement and the Islamist Hamas of Ismail Haniya, the Prime Minister. At the recent funeral of two powerful clan members nominally attached to Fatah, mourners suddenly burst from the procession and shot at Hamas police guarding an electricity office in Gaza City. In the mayhem, three cars were set on fire and the building was looted; workers reported thousands of shekels stolen from the coffers.

Alaa al-Shawa’s Gaza City internet café was one of about half a dozen attacked by bombers who planted a small explosive device near the window. The 27-year-old entrepreneur said that he did not allow porn in his shop but knew of other cafés that did. “I use censorship and block all such material. I don’t think they were targeting someone in particular, I think they don’t want internet cafés here, period,” he said.

“I went to the Palestinian Authority and to all the factions but no one can help you.” He is one of the few to reopen, but said that he had no choice. “It is dangerous for my staff and I, but I don’t have another way of making a living.”

Since Hamas won elections in January many liberal Gazans have feared an Islamic crackdown on “decadent practices” such as the leisure industry and women going unveiled.

However, Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, said that it had nothing to do with the attacks, and condemned them. “Hamas is among those most damaged by the lack of security,” he said. “Our programme of change and reform regarding corruption and vice is not based on any sort of violence or fighting, but in an educated, civilised way that represents the culture of the Palestinian people and their faith.”

Brigadier-General Tawfiq Jabr Youssef, head of public relations for the Palestinian Authority police, said that they knew of 11 pharmacies suspected of dealing in illegal drugs and more than half a dozen that had been attacked. Internet store owners estimate more than a dozen attacks on their premises.

Like many, he blamed the attacks on Israeli agents or collaborators seeking to undermine Palestinian society to benefit foreign powers. While the attacks on chemists could be the work of extremists, commercial rivals or gangsters, the internet bombings were, he said, most likely the work of Islamic extremists working within a conservative society in which many already harboured “very negative” attitudes to pool halls and the internet.

“Frankly some people have a dark vision of religion. They were raised under aggression and [Israeli] occupation and they don’t have very much in their lives,” the Brigadier said.

Mona al-Shawa, of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, said that the situation in Gaza was the worst that she had known. “I have never felt scared like I feel now. If this happens to cafés, what will be next?”