One killed in Palestinian clashes over Annapolis
(Combines Gaza, Hebron datelined stories, adds details)
By Haitham Tamimi
HEBRON, West Bank, Nov 27 (Reuters) - A Palestinian demonstrator was killed at an anti-Annapolis rally on Tuesday when clashes broke out between security forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas and Islamists who brand him a traitor.
Medics said the 35-year-old killed in Hebron had been shot in the chest and 16 others were injured as Palestinian security forces tried to disperse the protest against Tuesday's U.S.-hosted peace conference near Washington.
Fellow demonstrators said a Palestinian security officer shot the man during the rally in Hebron, one of several organised in the West Bank by a small Islamist group that opposes Abbas's drive to make peace with Israel.
A police spokesman denied security forces were responsible.
In Gaza, where the Islamist party Hamas seized control in June, tens of thousands marched to chants of "Death to Israel, death to America" and called Abbas a "traitor" for accepting Israel's existence and trying to launch talks on founding a Palestinian state in only the West Bank and Gaza.
Hamas's victory in a parliamentary election last year, its control of Gaza and the presence of substantial opposition to Abbas's secular Fatah faction, even in the West Bank, are among reasons cited for doubting the peace process can succeed.
Speaking at the largest protest in the Gaza Strip, Hamas leaders said Abbas had no right to make concessions to Israel at the U.S.-hosted conference near Washington.
"Let them go to a thousand conferences, we say in the name of the Palestinian people that we did not authorise anyone to sign any agreement that harms our rights," Mahmoud al-Zahar, a Hamas leader, told a cheering crowd.
"Anyone who does so will be judged by history as a traitor."
Hundreds of Palestinians defied a ban on anti-Annapolis rallies in the larger West Bank, where Fatah holds sway, to attend protests in major cities. The largest took place in Hebron where up to 3,000 people gathered.
Security forces hit protesters with batons, shot into the air and fired tear gas to disperse the rallies. Al-Jazeera said its correspondent was injured by security forces in Ramallah.
Medics said they treated four people. A Reuters journalist said he saw at least 30 people being arrested in Ramallah.
NOTHING BUT "NOISE"
In Gaza, journalists estimated crowds of up to 100,000 people. Hamas put the number closer to 250,000, similar to the turnout at a rally called by Abbas's secular Fatah faction this month for the anniversary of Yasser Arafat's death.
U.S. President George W. Bush said in a prepared speech on Tuesday the aim of Annapolis was to launch peace negotiations, not seal an accord, prompting a Hamas official in Gaza to conclude the conference amounted to nothing but "noise".
While Abbas hopes talks will eventually lead to the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Hamas and Islamic Jihad claim a right to all land that is now Israel.
"There will be no concessions over one inch of Palestine. We will defend this land by our flesh and we will water it by our blood," Islamic Jihad leader Mohammed al-Hindi told the rally in Gaza.
Hamas, which is shunned by the West for refusing to renounce violence, was not invited to Annapolis.
Israel views Gaza as an "enemy entity" and launches regular raids into the territory to curb rocket attacks. Hamas and Palestinian medics said Israeli troops killed two Palestinian militants and a civilian in Gaza on Tuesday. (Additional reporting by Ali Sawafta in Ramallah, Atef Sa'ed in Nablus, Haitham Tamimi in Hebron and Joseph Nasr in Jerusalem; Writing by Rebecca Harrison; Editing by Alastair Macdonald and Robert Woodward)
By Haitham Tamimi
HEBRON, West Bank, Nov 27 (Reuters) - A Palestinian demonstrator was killed at an anti-Annapolis rally on Tuesday when clashes broke out between security forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas and Islamists who brand him a traitor.
Medics said the 35-year-old killed in Hebron had been shot in the chest and 16 others were injured as Palestinian security forces tried to disperse the protest against Tuesday's U.S.-hosted peace conference near Washington.
Fellow demonstrators said a Palestinian security officer shot the man during the rally in Hebron, one of several organised in the West Bank by a small Islamist group that opposes Abbas's drive to make peace with Israel.
A police spokesman denied security forces were responsible.
In Gaza, where the Islamist party Hamas seized control in June, tens of thousands marched to chants of "Death to Israel, death to America" and called Abbas a "traitor" for accepting Israel's existence and trying to launch talks on founding a Palestinian state in only the West Bank and Gaza.
Hamas's victory in a parliamentary election last year, its control of Gaza and the presence of substantial opposition to Abbas's secular Fatah faction, even in the West Bank, are among reasons cited for doubting the peace process can succeed.
Speaking at the largest protest in the Gaza Strip, Hamas leaders said Abbas had no right to make concessions to Israel at the U.S.-hosted conference near Washington.
"Let them go to a thousand conferences, we say in the name of the Palestinian people that we did not authorise anyone to sign any agreement that harms our rights," Mahmoud al-Zahar, a Hamas leader, told a cheering crowd.
"Anyone who does so will be judged by history as a traitor."
Hundreds of Palestinians defied a ban on anti-Annapolis rallies in the larger West Bank, where Fatah holds sway, to attend protests in major cities. The largest took place in Hebron where up to 3,000 people gathered.
Security forces hit protesters with batons, shot into the air and fired tear gas to disperse the rallies. Al-Jazeera said its correspondent was injured by security forces in Ramallah.
Medics said they treated four people. A Reuters journalist said he saw at least 30 people being arrested in Ramallah.
NOTHING BUT "NOISE"
In Gaza, journalists estimated crowds of up to 100,000 people. Hamas put the number closer to 250,000, similar to the turnout at a rally called by Abbas's secular Fatah faction this month for the anniversary of Yasser Arafat's death.
U.S. President George W. Bush said in a prepared speech on Tuesday the aim of Annapolis was to launch peace negotiations, not seal an accord, prompting a Hamas official in Gaza to conclude the conference amounted to nothing but "noise".
While Abbas hopes talks will eventually lead to the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Hamas and Islamic Jihad claim a right to all land that is now Israel.
"There will be no concessions over one inch of Palestine. We will defend this land by our flesh and we will water it by our blood," Islamic Jihad leader Mohammed al-Hindi told the rally in Gaza.
Hamas, which is shunned by the West for refusing to renounce violence, was not invited to Annapolis.
Israel views Gaza as an "enemy entity" and launches regular raids into the territory to curb rocket attacks. Hamas and Palestinian medics said Israeli troops killed two Palestinian militants and a civilian in Gaza on Tuesday. (Additional reporting by Ali Sawafta in Ramallah, Atef Sa'ed in Nablus, Haitham Tamimi in Hebron and Joseph Nasr in Jerusalem; Writing by Rebecca Harrison; Editing by Alastair Macdonald and Robert Woodward)
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