News Blog

Several Palestinians were killed and dozens were wounded in Gaza today when a mass rally to mark the third anniversary of the death of Yasir Arafat, the longtime Palestinian leader, ended in armed clashes. The official Palestine Authority television reported that seven people had been killed and more than 150 had been wounded. A doctor at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Fathi Abu Warda, said that at least six people had been killed and more than 100 were injured. Tens of thousands of Gazans turned out to honor Mr. Arafat, the founder of the Fatah movement. It was the largest show of support in Gaza for Fatah, the mainstream Palestinian organization, since the rival Islamic group Hamas seized the territory in an armed struggle last June. Different Fatah officials estimated attendance at the rally at somewhere between 250,000 and 500,000. Hamas and Fatah traded blame for the outbreak of the violence. Ahmed Helles, a senior Fatah leader in Gaza, said that Hamas militants had opened fire on the people at the rally because they “didn’t like the scene of such a large number of Fatah supporters participating in the rally.” According to The Associated Press, Hamas security officials said they fired toward protesters who threw stones at security compounds. But the Interior Ministry, run by Hamas, said in a statement that Fatah gunmen had opened fire on its police officers in several areas in Gaza. Among the injured was one Hamas policeman who was shot in the head, according to news reports. Speaking at a rally in Ramallah on Sunday, the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, of Fatah, denounced the takeover of Gaza by Hamas and called on Hamas to retreat from its “black coup.” Borrowing phrases from the Koran, he appealed to God to set Ismail Haniya, the Hamas leader in Gaza, back on the rightly guided path, to cheers from the crowd. A Fatah spokesman in Gaza said on Sunday that the Hamas police had confiscated thousands of hats, scarves and Arafat posters meant for the rally today in Gaza City. The Hamas police confirmed the raid, saying that the materials had been allowed to pass through a crossing from Israel into Gaza while Israel restricts the entry of food and fuel.