- Title: GAZA: Masses of Hamas supporters rally to mark Islamic group's 20th anniversary
- Date: 15th December 2007
- Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) DISMISSED PALESTINIAN PRIME MINISTER ISMAIL HANIYEH, SAYING: "Yes, today is the day of resistance, Jihad and uprising. The day will come for all of you crowds in Gaza." WIDE OF HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF HAMAS SUPPORTERS CHANTING AND CLAPPING HANDS CLOSE OF BANNER HANGING ABOVE STAGE READING 'WE WILL NOT RECOGNISE THE SO CALLED ISRAEL, HAMAS' CLOSE OF TW
- Embargoed: 30th December 2007 12:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: Domestic Politics
- Reuters ID: LVAD8UEKQGORLOFQJJ0L1FU9FJ0H
- Story Text: Hundreds of thousands of Hamas supporters mass in Gaza City to mark 20 years since the establishment of the Islamist group, which is shunned by the West.
Hundreds of thousands of Hamas supporters rallied in Gaza City on Saturday (December 15) in a show of force marking the Islamist group's 20th anniversary.
The Hamas rally came amid heightened tensions with Israel as well as with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's secular Fatah faction, which the Islamist group routed from Gaza in June in a brief but bloody civil war.
The central square where the rally was held in central Gaza City was awash with green flags and dozens of armed, masked men dressed in fatigues of the group's military wing patrolled in the crowd estimated at between 300,000 to 500,000.
Dismissed Palestinian prime minister Ismail Haniyeh said 'today is the day of resistance, jihad and uprising' in front of hundreds of thousands of Hamas supporters.
"Yes, today is the day of resistance, Jihad and uprising. The day will come for all of you crowds in Gaza," Haniyeh said during the rally.
Founded in 1987 by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, whom Israel killed in an air strike in 2004, the group's charter calls for the elimination of the the Jewish state and the establishment of an Islamic state on all of what was British-run Palestine.
Leaders of Hamas threatened to launch a new uprising against Israel.
The rally was held at the spot where last month seven Fatah supporters were killed by gunfire while commemorating the fifth anniversary of the death of iconic Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
Hamas said Abbas, whose administration is backed by the West, ordered a ban on similar pro-Hamas rallies in the West Bank, where the Palestinian President's Fatah movement holds sway. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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