Members of the Hamas Security Force beat up journalists covering a demonstration Friday held by the rival Fatah movement, briefly arresting four of them and confiscating their cameras in a sign of growing intolerance for political opposition, Arabnews.com has reported.
The Hamas men fired guns over the heads of the protesters and scuffled with Fatah members, who threw stones and bottles at a former Fatah security compound now controlled by Hamas. Palestinian local media sources reported that 15 of the protesters were wounded in the scuffle.
The unrest signaled possible cracks in Hamas’ two-month-old takeover of Gaza, with harassment of journalists and political opponents growing increasingly common. It was the second time in recent weeks that the group has clashed with Fatah protesters.
Yesterday’s scuffle followed the weekly Friday prayers in an open square in downtown Gaza City, called by Fatah activists who say they are no longer welcomed in mosques following the Hamas takeover. “The gathering of Fatah sons is to say and prove that the mosques are for God and are not political forums for spreading sedition and rumors among the people of Palestine,” said Abu Ahmed, a 30-year-old Fatah supporter.
Following the prayers, the demonstrators marched toward the security compound — now used as the headquarters of Hamas Executive Force — and the scuffle broke out, Arabnews.com reported.
When several Hamas security men roughed up a Reuters TV cameraman filming the protest and tried to confiscate his camera, protesters surrounded the Hamas men, beat them to the ground and prevented the cameraman’s arrest. The demonstrators cursed the Hamas men, calling them “Shiites” — an allusion to Hamas’ alliance with the hardline regime in Iran.
The Hamas men also detained a photographer working for Agence France Presse and a cameraman for the Russian TV channel Russia Today, along with two other reporters working for local news outlets. They also broke a TV camera belonging to the Arabic-language TV network Al-Arabiya, the report said.
All four detained journalists were quickly released, Hamas officials and witnesses said. They said they got their equipment back. Later, journalists staged a separate protest against the crackdown. “No to repression and beating,” said one banner carried by the protesters.
Khaled Bolbol, one of the local reporters detained, said he was abused and ordered to speak to Hamas’ Al-Aqsa television station. “I refused,” he said. “I was beaten and stepped on...I don’t want to speak to (Hamas) TV or any other.”
Islam Shahwan, spokesman for the Hamas Executive Force, accused a small group of Fatah activists of “inciting chaos and bringing back the situation to lawlessness.” He said Hamas “will not allow the situation to be repeated” and promised to arrest those behind the protest.
