Twelve Palestinians and a French photographer wounded Friday in
clashes between supporters of President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah
movement and Hamas executive force in Gaza, witnesses and medics
said.
Palestinian medics in Gaza said that a French citizen works as a
photographer was lightly injured in his leg by fragments of a
handmade grenade thrown by Fatah supporters at members of Hamas
executive force in Gaza City.
The medics also said that two more people were injured during
the clashes in Gaza City while 10 others sustained their injuries
from a similar clash in southern Gaza town of Rafah.
Members of the
Hamas Executive Forces arrest a supporter of rival Fatah movement
following clashes in Gaza City on Aug. 31, 2007.?
The clashes erupted as thousands of Fatah supporters
demonstrated at the end of the weekly Muslim Friday prayers in open
areas in the Gaza Strip.
Witnesses said that at the end of the prayers, Fatah supporters
chanted songs against Hamas and hurled homemade hand grenades at
members of Hamas executive force.
Fatah movement had earlier called on its supporters in Gaza in a
leaflet to go for Friday prayers in open areas instead of praying
in mosques "used by Hamas movement to incite against the movement
and against the Palestinian leadership."
Hamas movement and its militants took control of the Gaza Strip
in mid June following bloody clashes with security forces and Fatah
militants loyal to Abbas.
(Xinhua News Agency September 1, 2007)
