Gaza City - Hamas police wounded 20 Palestinians as they broke up crowds gathering to pray outdoors across the Gaza Strip on Friday in defiance of an Islamist ban on such gatherings, medics and witnesses said.
Armed with batons, stun grenades and firing into the air, the Executive Force paramilitaries dispersed hundreds and arrested several people near the Nusseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, witnesses said.
Medical sources said seven Palestinians were wounded there, including one hit in the head and left in a serious condition.
In Rafah, in the southern part of the impoverished territory, Hamas police also fired into the air to break up a gathering of would-be worshippers and made further arrests, according to witnesses.
Baton-wielding Executive Force members also dispersed protestors in the north, witnesses and medics said.
A total of 20 people were injured in the protests across Gaza, medical sources said.
The Hamas authorities, who seized control of the Gaza Strip three months ago, have banned outdoor prayers, accusing political rivals of exploiting one such gathering last week to "incite chaos, trouble and terrorist acts".
More than 10,000 Palestinians defied the Islamists to stage public prayers last Friday in the biggest protest against Hamas since the armed takeover.
Fatah had called for similar prayers this week and the Executive Force deployed in force on roads leading to the square in Gaza City where protestors were to try to hold the main rally, in order to stop them from arriving.
The Executive Force arrested three Palestinian cameramen who were filming in the area and five others were beaten, witnesses said.
Hamas gunmen also barged into an office nearby to arrest three senior Fatah party officials, Zakaria al-Agha, Ibrahim Abu al-Naja and Ahmed Abu al-Nasr, said a senior member of Hamas, which later branded them "a group of trouble makers and agitators."
Hundreds of worshippers were ordered by loud-speaker to disperse as they spilled out of a nearby a nearby mosque after the main Friday prayers.
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, who leads Fatah, earlier appealed to worshippers to avoid "friction or clashes with the coupists and their militias who do not hesitate to invoke the worst kind of repression".
"We are trying to avoid any bloodshed and the coupists must not be provoked," he said in a message relayed by the official WAFA news agency.
Several human rights organisations have denounced attacks on civil liberties in Gaza since Hamas seized power on June 15 after a week of deadly street fighting that killed more than 100 Palestinians.
One party official charged that the force asked dozens of Fatah members to sign an undertaking not to pray outside or demonstrate on Friday under pain of paying a fine of 4,000 Jordanian dinars (5,646 dollars).
The Executive Force spokesman denied any arrests but confirmed that several Fatah members and leaders had signed an undertaking "not to participate or provoke trouble for public order".