Baraa, an 11-year-old boy, was building a sandy castle on Gaza city's beach, when a ringing mobile at the adjacent summer vacationist's tent caught his attention.

"Fatah ... mother of free nations, keep your flags higher," rang the bell of the mobile.

Baraa dusted the sand off his hands and dashed to his mother, whispering: "Mom, our neighbors are Fatah members! I heard their mobile."

His 38-year-old mother Om Baraa was startled at these remarks, wondering how such a little boy knew about political affiliations. She came to enjoy the beach with her sister and four children on Friday, but it seemed there was nowhere to avoid political concerns.

The Islamic Hamas movement, which considers President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party a major rival, has been ruling the Gaza Strip since June 2007. It has unofficially announced that the secular party's political activities in the impoverished enclave are banned.

"Many young people have their mobile phones set with bells defining their political identities. Now even our children are able to distinguish who belongs to which group," said Om Baraa.

Baraa's experience is common among households in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. When a mobile starts ringing, people usually can interpret the owner's political stance, or whether the person is politically affiliated.

At the Islamic university campus in Gaza city, student Abdel Karim Saleh prefers to use the most popular Hamas songs as his mobile bell. "Welcome Qassam hawk, welcome Hamasniks. Settler is no longer able to sleep, sure escape, one hundred percent."

Another student Rami Zidan said: "most of the students choose their mobile ringing tones to present their political affiliations, If you want to know anyone's (political) identity, just call him."

Salma Mushtaha admitted that her mobile bears a spate of ringing tones, individualized for each of her family members.

"My eldest brother belongs to Hamas, while my other two brothers to Fatah and Islamic Jihad, so I had to set up different bells for them," she said.

However, Fatah-Hamas political competition has become high not only in Gaza but also in the West Bank and abroad. Both movements' security forces cracked down on each other's members in the two divided territories over the past two years. There were also unavoidable occasions when brothers belonging to different sides confronted and fought each other.

Inside one mobile store in Gaza, Samer Al Shawa, another student from the city, refused to load his mobile with Hamas songs, and asked the technician to replace them with Fatah ones.

"I simply want my mobile to be Fatah in tones and themes," he said decisively.

The shop owner Khaled Jibril said most of his customers selected their mobile bells according to their political beliefs and affiliations.

The 1.5 million Gaza Strip population might be the people, who are most interested in politics in the world, Jibril said. "Their private properties, such as mobile phones, the keys of their cars and doors, and their notepads, bear the sign of their political concerns."

In Gaza, however, ringing tones are not always linked with political affiliations. They also reflect other global and local incidents.

Some people devote their ringing tones to advocating Prophet Muhammad of Moslems, while some show support to al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, and others call for the national unity between Fatah and Hamas.

Ola Muhanna, the student at Al Azhar University of Gaza, said bells bearing political identities can be annoying, especially when people use it to tease others.

"However, political and national tones are much better than rude songs which carry an offense towards Islam or Arabs," she said.

(Xinhua News Agency June 22, 2009)