Looking Back: Fatah gunmen lay siege to Hamas TV station in Gaza

12 June 2007

GAZA CITY - Palestinian security forces loyal to Fatah were laying siege to the Gaza City headquarters of Hamas television amid the sound of gunfire, witnesses said.

Dozens of security officials had taken up position around the Al-Aqsa television headquarters in the Al-Nasr neighbourhood of Gaza.

The channel interrupted regular programming to broadcast a written message on the screen urging residents in the Gaza Strip "to defend it against the assault led by traitors," said an Agence France-Presse correspondent.

In Ramallah, the presidential guard controlled by Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas said it raided an office of Hamas television station Al-Aqsa and confiscated equipment. Three employees were arrested, said security sources.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri denounced the arrest of Al-Aqsa television staff as a "serious crime".