Hundreds detained in Egypt over Gaza protests

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian security forces rounded up hundreds of members of the Muslim Brotherhood on Wednesday, accusing them of illegally organizing protests against Israel's blockade of Gaza, security sources said.

Police and plainclothes security men beat fleeing protesters with sticks as they broke up a pro-Gaza demonstration in Cairo's central Tahrir Square by about 2,000 Islamists and leftists, but the protests soon resumed elsewhere in the city centre.

"No to the siege of Gaza," protesters chanted as they waved Palestinian flags. "Break the bonds, remove the barriers," others shouted.

The arrests -- the biggest one-day round-up for more than two years -- were carried out as the government came under increasing domestic pressure over its response to the Israeli action in Gaza.

Palestinians blew holes in the border fence overnight and thousands poured into Egypt, seeking relief from the blockade, which began in June.

The protests were among the biggest in Egypt since anti-government demonstrations during presidential and parliamentary elections in 2005.

Security sources said at least 500 people were arrested, most of them during the protests in central Cairo. Brotherhood officials put the number of arrests at between 300 and more than 1,200.

Outside the city centre, more than 70 Brotherhood activists were held in Giza and the Nile Delta, where the Islamist group has a strong popular base, a Brotherhood spokesman said.

ORGANISING A MARCH

Another 55 were picked up in the streets of the oasis town of Fayyoum, southwest of the Egyptian capital, where they were organizing a march, he said. A busload of 35 Brotherhood members were detained as they made their way from the southern city of Assiut to protest in Cairo.

The Brotherhood said the detained men had organized protests on Tuesday and Wednesday against the Israeli closure of Gaza. They were accused of organizing protests without a permit and belonging to a banned organization, security sources said.

"There are national demands for Egypt to open the Rafah crossing, the only gateway available for the Gaza Strip," Brotherhood leader Mohamed Mahdi Akef said in a statement.

Israel sealed its borders with the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip last week, cutting fuel supplies to the territory's main power plant and petrol stations and stopping aid shipments that include food and other humanitarian supplies. It resumed fuel supplies on Tuesday.

The Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt had been mainly closed since June.

Egyptian riot police stood aside when the Palestinians poured across on Wednesday to stock up on food and fuel.

Israel said the blockade was aimed at making Palestinian militants stop firing rockets into southern Israel. The European Union and international agencies have called the closure a collective punishment of Gaza's 1.5 million people.

Members of the Brotherhood, a non-violent group that the government considers an illegal organization, hold a fifth of the seats in parliament, although security forces often detain members without formal charges.

(Additional reporting By Aziz El-Kaissouni and Mohamed Abdellah; Writing by Cynthia Johnston; editing by Andrew Dobbier)