GAZA CITY More than 10,000 Palestinians defied Hamas by praying outside in the biggest Gaza Strip protest since the radical Islamist movement took control in June.

Eleven protesters suffered minor injuries in Gaza City and Rafah, and a French journalist working for the Arte television channel was slightly wounded by a stun grenade.

Watched over by paramilitaries, protesters gathered in a Gaza City public square for the main weekly Muslim prayers, which lasted about an hour. In Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, nearly 5,000 protesters threw stones and the Executive Force paramilitary fired into the air.

The Fatah party, chaired by Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President, led calls for the outside prayers, accusing Hamas of exploiting mosques to inflame tensions. Movements within the Palestine Liberation Organisation – to which Hamas does not belong – issued the same call.

Immediately after the prayers hundreds denounced Hamas and Ismail Haniya, the movement’s sacked Prime Minister, and marched through the streets. (AFP)

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