GAZA YOUTH BAND TOGETHER TO STOP HAMAS-FATAH RIFT

Gaza, 11 Rajab 1436/30 April 2015 (MINA) – Hundreds of young Gazans on Wednesday staged a demonstration to call for an end to the eight-year-long rift between Palestine’s two leading factions, Hamas and Fatah.

“Palestine is for everyone!” demonstrators shouted. “The people want to end the Hamas-Fatah division!”

The rally came in response to calls by the nascent “April 29 Movement,” a grassroots group devoted to pressuring the two factions to implement the terms of a reconciliation deal signed on April 29 of last year, World Bulletin quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

“We want to live in dignity and unite against the Israeli occupation,” Guevara Abu Naeem, who took part in the rallies in Gaza City’s war-battered Shujaya district, told Anadolu Agency.

Wednesday’s demonstration was marred by verbal altercations which in some cases turned into brief fistfights between supporters of the rival factions.

Gaza’s Interior Ministry, for its part, said it had to “intervene” to break up fights that erupted at the demonstration.

Hamas and Fatah signed a landmark reconciliation agreement almost one year ago in hopes of ending eight years of division.

Those divisions have led to two rival seats of Palestinian government: one in Gaza City and one in the West Bank city of Ramallah. (T/P002/R04)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)