Several thousand protest in Ramallah against Gaza assault

Jan 16, 2009, 11:33 GMT

Ramallah - Some 3,000 Palestinians marched in the West Bank city of Ramallah Friday to protest Israel's offensive in Gaza, waving Palestinian flags, chanting 'the blood of the martyrs will not go to waste,' and holding up signs calling for West Bank-Gaza unity.

Women holding up copies of the Koran chanted slogans in support of Hamas, as Palestinian police in uniform walked behind but did not try to stop them.

Plain-clothes security forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas, whose Fatah party is locked in a bitter power struggle with Hamas, had beaten and arrested marchers shouting pro-Hamas slogans during similar demonstrations over the past two Fridays.

But organizers - of an umbrella group representing various factions including the two rival parties - then threatened to cancel all planned West Bank demonstrations against the Israeli assault in Gaza.

They withdrew their threat after acting Palestinian Interior Minister Abdul Razzaq Yahya, in a meeting with the group, promised no longer to use force against Hamas demonstrators.

As part of a compromise, the parties agreed not to carry Hamas and Fatah, but only Palestinian flags during Friday's protest.

Tensions between the two groups have remained high since they peaked in June 2007, when Hamas seized sole control of Gaza by violently overpowering the headquarters throughout the strip of Fatah- dominated security forces answering to Abbas.

Since then, Hamas has cracked down on Fatah supporters in Gaza, while also Abbas, fearing a similar violent take-over in the West Bank, has acted heavy-handedly against Hamas members.

The tensions have led to a relatively low turn-out in the West Bank protests against Israel, despite widespread outrage among Palestinians over the surging death toll in Gaza, where more than 1,100 people have been killed and 5,000 wounded over the past three weeks.