The western media seems to be divided on the issue of Hamas's power: is it unpopular in Gaza but holding on by force, or does it represent the voice of the people?; is it gaining influence outside of Gaza, or is it a minor diplomatic player?

This week, Bloomberg implies that the Islamist Palestinian party is tightening its grip on Gaza by enforcing policies that amount to 'creeping Islamization.'

The Islamic Hamas movement banned girls last month from riding behind men on motor scooters and forbade women from dancing at the opening of a folk museum. Girls in some schools must wear Islamic headscarves and cloaks.

Signs of Hamas's creeping Islamization are everywhere in Gaza, the Mediterranean coastal enclave that Hamas has run by itself since 2007. Gaza is already politically divided from the West Bank, the Palestinian territory administered by the secular Fatah movement.

"Ruling by itself, Hamas can stamp its ideas on everyone," said Mkhaimar Abusada, a political science professor at Gaza's al-Azhar University. "Islamizing society has always been part of Hamas strategy."

Haaretz, meanwhile, says that Hamas's influence in the diplomatic arena is growing as a result of having become the main negotiator for a prisoner swap that would result in Gilad Shalit's release.

Throughout the negotiations, Hamas spokesmen insisted that 1,400 prisoners would be released in a swap. Has Israel gotten Hamas to fold on this demand? That's doubtful. For instance, the state's response doesn't make it clear whether the 530 prisoners include Palestinian women and youths. More prisoners may be released after the first 980. And the state's response doesn't even mention the hundreds of prisoners Israel is likely to release in the future, in a bid to furbish the image of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

In other words, if the Shalit deal goes through, more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners will be released in the coming months, possibly close to 2,000.

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