She found that Palestinian women were trapped between the savage Israeli occupation and a suffocatingly patriarchal Palestinian society. She knew there was only one way to free them - by getting them jobs and hard earning power.

Her proposal to establish an organisation providing jobs for women was refused by the Israeli occupying authorities, but Ms Ahmad refused to let this stop her. Risking interrogation and imprisonment, she went ahead and set up a network for women to make jams and foods in their homes and to sell them on. In Gaza, the Women's Institute was revolutionary, and jam-making an act of subversion.

After four years, Ms Ahmad's organisation was finally legalised. Today - thanks to the Welfare Association, one of the three charities being supported in this year's Independent Christmas Appeal - it has a permanent base.

She is sitting with me in the courtyard, watching women sip coffee and read print-outs from the internet terminals here. If you shut out the endless car-horns - the tinnitus of the most congested land-mass in the world - and the simulated explosions of the Israeli sonic booms, this is as close to tranquil as Gaza City gets.

"Women are suffering most from the occupation and economic collapse," she explains. "When the husband is out of work and at home all the time, he starts picking on his wife. For a lot of men, being unemployed and humiliated by the Israelis makes them show they are still in control somewhere - over their wives and children. Often violence breaks out."

Ms Ahmad's priority was to give women a chance to earn money and achieve independence. That is why she set up a women-only, non-profit clothing factory, and today as she walks along its floor with me, the 30 women are engaging in the usual factory-floor banter. They all have a story of how this centre changed their lives. Leila is a 40-year-old sewing machinist, and as she steps away from her machine she explains: "I used to live on food and money subsidies from a local charity. I was stuck at home, staring at the walls and thinking 'What am I doing with my life?'

"Then a charity worker told me I was intelligent and I could be a producer, not just a passive recipient - and he put me in touch with this charity. Now I support my husband and my seven children." She laughs with a mixture of surprise and glee. "I am convinced that sitting at home waiting for donations is bad. Going out, fulfilling yourself, being independent - that is good. I want all women to be able to do this."

Fatima is a bubbly 18-year-old who works on the knitting machines. She has always wanted to be a teacher of deaf children, but her parents could not afford to send her to university - so she is paying her own way as a student while working. "It's an amazing feeling, to be able to stand on your own feet: to be an independent woman," she says.

The Welfare Association helps to pay for these women to make school uniforms for the poverty-wracked children, and to maintain a bakery. Ms Ahmad says: "The most noticeable thing is that when women first join our society, they don't speak a lot. They are silent, because that's how they have been taught to be. But after a while they start to express their views, and soon they are drawn out of their silence. They want to browse the internet, see the world out there. It's like a person who has been locked in a room; then you offer them a window and they want to see more and more."

Ms Ahmad wants to open more windows - but she needs your money to do it. "When you help a Palestinian woman, you help all her children," she says. "When you free a Palestinian woman, you help to free Palestine."

The border closure sparked chaotic scenes. More than 1,000 Hamas members stormed the checkpoint, firing into the air as travellers ducked for cover and sparking a gun battle with Palestinian security guards. Two bombs were detonated nearby to blow a hole through the concrete wall on the border. One of Mr Haniyeh's bodyguards was reported to have been killed, and more than two dozen other people, including Mr Haniyeh's son, were wounded.

The incident came after another day of clashes between rival Palestinian factions in the tense atmosphere of Gaza. A gun battle broke out when officers from the General Intelligence unit, a force allied to the Fatah faction of the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, arrested a member of another faction, the Popular Resistance Committees, in Gaza City. The arrested man, Hisham Mukhaimar, was wanted in connection with the killing of the three young sons of a Fatah intelligence officer in Gaza on Monday.

After the arrest the Popular Resistance Committees kidnapped a General Intelligence security officer in retaliation.

On Wednesday a Hamas judge was killed in southern Gaza in another retaliatory attack. In Ramallah in the West Bank, Hamas cancelled a rally due to be held yesterday to mark the 19th anniversary of its founding.

Fatah activists had blocked off the streets and security officers loyal to Fatah were deployed in the area.

Hamas officials said another rally was planned for today and Mr Haniyeh, who had cut short his trip abroad to handle the crisis, would address a large crowd in Gaza. That comes a day before Mr Abbas is to make a speech in which he is expected to threaten early elections in an effort to break the deadlock between the rival factions.

Since Hamas won elections and formed a government in March, the Palestinian Authority has faced an international financial boycott.

Israel is also withholding $60m a month in tax revenues, which normally pays the salaries of 160,000 government employees. The international community and Israel say Hamas must recognise Israel, halt violence and sign up to past peace agreements before the boycott is lifted.

Hamas has refused, and for the past month Mr Haniyeh has been touring the Muslim world to rally support.

Iran, Qatar and Sudan have together promised up to $350m, but transferring the money has proved difficult due to banking sanctions. In recent weeks, Hamas ministers have brought in up to $80m in cash stuffed in suitcases when they cross the Rafah border.

But Israel, in particular, appears to want to prevent any Iranian funds reaching Hamas leaders in Gaza.

Correspondents say the attack on Mr Haniya - and Hamas's open accusation of such a prominent opponent - have dramatically raised the stakes in the tense political struggle in the Palestinian territories.

Shooting erupted in Gaza City on Friday between masked Hamas gunmen and Palestinian police allied to Fatah. An exchange of gunfire between the factions was also reported in Ramallah.

Hamas had deployed armed militants to key points in a show of force following the fire fight.

Hamas spokesman Ismail Radwan had earlier said the attack at Rafah was "an assassination attempt carried out by traitors led by Mohammad Dahlan".

Mr Dahlan is a former minister of internal security and a fierce critic of Hamas.

In the 1990s he led a crackdown on militants who refused to acknowledge the new Palestinian Authority (PA).

Fatah spokesman Tawfiq Abu Khoussa rejected Hamas's claims.

"Fatah has condemned the incident and is demanding the formation of an official investigation committee," he said.

"These accusations are posing a grave threat to Palestinian unity."

PA President Mahmoud Abbas, the head of Fatah, said he regretted the attack, but Hamas said he had to share some responsibility.

Mr Haniya, after his return to Gaza City, said: "We know who opened fire."

Israeli Deputy Defence Minister Ephraim Sneh said his first response was to regret that the gunmen had missed Mr Haniya.

He told Israeli radio: "Emotionally, it was indeed my feeling. But upon coldly reconsidering it, I do not believe that that would have solved the problem."

Chaotic scenes

Inter-faction tensions have increased since the killing of three sons of a pro-Fatah security chief on Monday.

Mr Haniya had tried to cut short his first trip abroad as prime minister to deal with the crisis.

But Israel on Thursday closed the Gaza border, saying the reported $30m (£15.3m) Mr Haniya was carrying in donations as he returned from his foreign trip would fund "terrorist operations".

Mr Haniya crossed late in the evening following hours of intense negotiations, leaving the money on the Egyptian side. But at the border, guards allied to Fatah exchanged fire with Mr Haniya's security forces.

The BBC's Alan Johnston in Gaza said that during chaotic scenes gunfire rattled around the entrance hall to the customs hall as Mr Haniya's bodyguards shielded him.

Television pictures showed Mr Haniya's jeep manoeuvring to avoid bullets.

Hamas won elections in January, but has struggled in government amid a Western aid boycott against the militant Islamic group, which refuses to renounce violence and recognise Israel.

The Palestinian Authority has been unable to pay full salaries to its 165,000 workers.

With fewer than two weeks until Christmas, Bethlehem Mayor Victor Batarseh said very few pilgrims have arrived so far. Bethlehem is a safe and peaceful city, said Batarseh. He appealed to Christians from around the world to come to visit.

"The message to our Christian brothers is not to forget, forsake Bethlehem city. We need our brothers to stand in solidarity with us [and]... visit," Batarseh told Cybercast News Service by telephone.

Fifty years ago, Christians made up some 90 percent of the population in Bethlehem. Now they represent less than half, and the numbers continue to decline.

Economic concerns as well as persecution have driven many Christians to seek better lives in the West.

Batarseh said he did not know of any families that had left Bethlehem in the last few months. The more Christians that leave Bethlehem, the more it is a disaster not only for Bethlehem but also for the world, which would lose what he called a "model of co-existence."

Bridges

The enclave of Bethlehem, just six miles from Jerusalem, is now surrounded on three sides by Israel's security barrier, which Israel credits for a dramatic drop in terror attacks from the West Bank. Passage to and from the city is through a high-tech border crossing and passport control checkpoint that works like airport security.

"We need to break these walls of separation, not physically but psychologically. We need to build bridges, not walls," Batarseh said in reference to the barrier.

"[It will be a] very sad Christmas for the citizens of Bethlehem," Batarseh said. The security barrier, the summer war in Lebanon between Israel and Hizballah and the trouble in the Gaza Strip as well as a "bad political situation" in the Middle East have all affected tourism and pilgrimage, Batarseh said.

But Judeh Morkus, the Palestinian Authority minister of tourism, offered a more optimistic assessment of the tourism situation. While tourism is less than half of what it was in pre-intifadah days, it has been on the rise since last year, he said.

"It's a very bad political and economic situation," said Morkus, "[But we] hope that will change in the coming weeks."

Before the intifadah, nearly a million people a year visited the city, Morkus said in a telephone interview.

When Christians around the world were marking the second millennium since the birth of Jesus in 2000, the Holy Land expected record tourism. But the Palestinian uprising, which started in September of that year, scared away visitors and sent tourism plummeting.

Last year some 300,000 pilgrims and tourists visited Bethlehem, said Morkus, a Catholic who was born and raised in the city. (That is three times the number who visited in 2004.) And by the end of 2006, Bethlehem is expecting to see some 450,000 visitors for the year, he said.

For the first time since the intifadah erupted, the 2,000 hotel rooms in Bethlehem are fully booked over the Christmas holiday, said Morkus. Thousands of visitors are expected over the two-day Christmas holiday.

According to Morkus, the P.A. has granted the Bethlehem Municipality $50,000 to help pay for decorations and activities during the holiday season.

Israeli Christian Arabs from Nazareth and Haifa are being encouraged to join the celebrations in Bethlehem. And a traditional December 24th reception for residents of the city that was held in the prior to 1997 may be re-instituted, said Morkus.

An Israeli Tourism Ministry official said Israel would do all it could to facilitate tourism and pilgrimage to Bethlehem during the Christmas holidays. As usual Israel will provide a free shuttle service for pilgrims traveling from Jerusalem to Bethlehem from noon on Christmas Eve until noon on Christmas day.

The Tourism Ministry also is providing all those who travel to Bethlehem "a Christmas greeting" and a "surprise trinket" said the official. Everything is being done to make passage to Bethlehem as easy as possible, he said.