GAZA CITY, Aug 11 (AFP): At least 20 demonstrators were injured in clashes with Hamas militants in the northern Gaza Strip sparked by the arrest of around 10 members of the rival Fatah party, relatives said Saturday.
Members of the Hamas Executive Force waded in with batons and fired shots in the air when some 150 relatives -- mostly women and children -- of those rounded up staged protests outside Hamas offices in Beit Hanun, witnesses said.
The arrests occurred during overnight marriage celebrations in Beit Hanun during which wedding-goers began singing Fatah nationalistic songs, the witnesses said.
Members of the Executive Force, the paramilitary that has been acting as police in the territory in the wake of the mid-June Gaza takeover, were attacked with stones when they began to intervene.
"Those arrested are accused of disturbing the public order," said Executive Force spokesman Saber Khalifa without elaborating.
The Islamists have clamped down on dissent since taking control of Gaza nearly two months ago following a week of bloody street battles.
On August 1, Hamas banned Palestinian public television -- which has been controlled by Abbas -- from making or broadcasting any programmes inside Gaza. It has also closed a pro-Fatah radio station and news agency.
This week it arrested the public relations director of Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Jumaa al-Saqqa, after firing him from his post.
Saqqa, a Fatah member who had worked at the facility for more than 20 years, had sent a letter stating he did not recognise either the health minister, whose administration has been fired by Abbas, or the Hamas-appointed director of the hospital.
Twenty hurt in clashes after Fatah members held in Gaza
FE Team | Published: August 12, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00
Share if you like