Hamas officials in the Gaza Strip prohibit public prayer meetings

3 September 2007

By DPA

Officials in the Hamas' administration in the Gaza Strip called Monday for a ban on holding Friday prayers in public, as rival Fatah has demanded.

Salleh al-Reggeb, formerly director of the Religious Affairs Ministry in the former administration of deposed Palestinian Authority premier Ismail Haniyeh, said such prayers would be "religiously illegal."

The dispute over public prayers has erupted after tens of thousands of Fatah supporters prayed last Friday in public in several locations in the Strip, in a direct challenge to Hamas and its executive security forces.

More than 20 people, including two journalists, were wounded in the clashes which subsequently broke out, and dozens of people were detained.

"The public prayers that Fatah called were not serious, it included ridiculous behaviour by the worshippers. Moreover, the worshippers don't come to pray, they come for riots and violations of the law," al-Reggeb said.

The Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), in a meeting chaired by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, called on the Palestinians in Gaza to pray in public next Friday.

Haniyeh's administration accused the PLO committee and Abbas "of inciting the Palestinians to riots, violence and terror."

Relations between Fatah and Hamas have ruptured following Hamas' violent takeover of the Gaza Strip in five days of savage fighting in June.

Although Abbas reacted to the takeover by dismissing the Hamas-led unity government, the Islamist movement called his move illegal and continues to administer the Gaza Strip, while an Abbas-appointed cabinet runs the West Bank.