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LISA MULLINS: Israelis certainly would rather not have a second combat zone open up at this point. The offensive in Gaza remains Israel's primary military focus, but tomorrow will bring an additional security concern for the Israeli government. Demonstrations are expected in the West Bank after Friday prayers. Anger among Palestinians there has been rising as the death toll in Gaza climbs. The World's Quil Lawrence reports from the West Bank town of Hebron.

QUIL LAWRENCE: Hebron is home to some of the fiercest confrontations between Palestinians and West Bank settlers who are protected by the Israeli Army, but it's also a fault line of Palestinian politics. Hebron is considered a Hamas stronghold. The Palestinian Authority controlled by Fatah has severely repressed Hamas here and it's even banned public protests against the Israeli offensive in Gaza, but spontaneous demonstrations have popped up. Protestors have clashed with the Palestinian police as well as the Israeli Defense Force. Today it was stone throwing south of Hebron in the Fawar Refugee Camp. Two Palestinian boys wound up in the Emergency Room in Hebron.

FAHDI: Palestinians' blood is the same around all the world, so people everywhere, every Palestinian everywhere, is together in these days and feel what happened in Gaza.

LAWRENCE: Fahdi, who only gave his first name, looked on as doctors examined x-rays showing a slug lodged in his brother's chin. Another boy, only 12-years-old, took a round in the stomach and was in critical condition. Fahdi doesn't want to talk about politics, but he says everyone sympathizes with Hamas.

FAHDI: I believe that what Hamas do, and what other parties do in Gaza, is for struggle and for help their families and friends.

LAWRENCE: The other wounded boy's uncle stood outside the surgery waiting for news. He says his nephew isn't too young too be angry about what's happening in Gaza.

UNCLE OF BOY: If you ask a small boy about his feeling he told you, "You didn't see some children died in hospital, in mosques, in the schools?"

LAWRENCE: The boy's uncle didn't want to talk politics either, but he takes a thinly-veiled shot at the Palestinian government for failing to help Gaza.

UNCLE OF BOY: There is a big difference between the government and the public. You see the public in other country, what they do? The government, Arabic and Islamic, do not do a thing.

LAWRENCE: The Governor of Hebron, Hussein al-Araj, says the Palestinian authority is repressing the protests in order to keep more Palestinians from getting hurt or killed. And according to the Governor, the attack on Gaza is uniting Palestinians behind their government led by Mahmoud Abbas.

MAHMOUD ABBAS: This is a lesson to the Palestinian to be together. It should be heard from all Palestinians that in their unity, their being together, they can face any hostility from the Israeli side.

LAWRENCE: But he might the only one left in Hebron who believes that the crisis is strengthening Abbas and the Palestinian authority. In fact, Hamas claims that the term of President Abbas will expire tomorrow. Fatah claims Abbas has another year in office. The conflict in Gaza has sidelined the dispute, but Hamas supporters say Abbas has lost his mandate anyhow. One Hamas supporter in Hebron agreed to speak only if his name was withheld. "Everyone knows that President Mahmoud Abbas is complicit in the Israeli attack on Gaza," he said. "And Hamas is growing every day in popularity here in the West Bank." The Hamas supporter says he was arrested by the Palestinian police late last year and tortured during a month-long detention, worse than anything he'd experienced in an Israeli jail. He does not think the attack on Gaza is unifying Palestinians. "I wish it would bring Palestinians together," he says, "but my experience has taught me there will always be someone who will collaborate with the enemy." But signs abound that Hamas is gaining support in the West Bank even among secular Palestinians who don't approve of Hamas's radical religious control in Gaza. Hamas has Fatah in a political corner, says Adli Danna who directs a media research center in Hebron.

ADLI DANNA: Indeed, Hamas have put them in the corner to choose between two things; are you with the people or you are not with the people? Even if this is not a very accurate equation, and Hamas has played it smartly, actually.

LAWRENCE: Danna says the government of Mahmoud Abbas cannot show its face in Gaza now without losing all credibility. Adli says that the Gaza attack has unified the Palestinian public, but he fears they're united now behind a message of violent resistance. That message may be delivered tomorrow in protests expected all over the West Bank. For The World, this is Quil Lawrence, Hebron, the West Bank.

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