WEST BANK: Palestinian women demand release of Hamas prisoners in the West Bank

Palestinian women stage a noisy protest in Ramallah calling for the release of Hamas detainees from Palestinian Authority prisons. Some 200 Palestinian women loyal to Hamas took to the streets of Ramallah in the West Bank on Saturday (September 22) calling for the release of Hamas detainees from Palestinian Authority prisons. The prisons fall under the authority of the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Scuffles broke out when the women -- wearing veils and shouting "God is great" -- tried to push past police, who tried to stop the march in the West Bank hub of Ramallah, where Abbas's Fatah faction is dominant. Police detained one woman after she sprayed gas at a policeman but no serious violence erupted. One woman complained that the Palestinian Authority police were more heavy-handed than the Israelis when it came to making arrests. "I swear, the security forces are more aggressive with us than the Israeli occupation forces," said one woman protester. "My husband had been arrested before by the israeli occupation and was treated much better than the aggressive and and ugly way the security forces treated my husband during his arrest last night," she said. The protest came amid simmering tensions between the two Palestinian factions after the Islamist group routed Fatah forces in the Gaza Strip in June, prompting Abbas to sack a Hamas-led government. Abbas has since established a new administration in the West Bank headed by Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, which has the backing of Western governments. A senior security official said fewer than 100 Hamas supporters are being held in Palestinian jails. Infighting between Palestinians and the split between Gaza and the West Bank threatens to undermine a U.S.-sponsored peace conference expected to be held in November, which Palestinians hope will help them secure an independent state. Saturday's protest was the first by Hamas supporters in Ramallah, the seat of the Fatah-backed government and an Abbas stronghold, since the June fighting in Gaza. The Islamist group has held marches in other West Bank cities since then. Tensions between the factions have been particularly high in Gaza in recent weeks after Hamas security men beat Fatah supporters during protests and the Islamist group blamed mysterious explosions on Fatah loyalists.

ITN Source | September 23, 2007

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