Rabbis hold prayers in besieged Gaza

Gaza City, Gaza - Four rabbis held the Sabbath prayers in a hotel in Gaza city on Saturday evening to express solidarity with people stranded in the besieged Gaza Strip.

The four rabbis are members of Neturei Karta movement, a Jewish group that doesn't believe in Zionism and insists that Israel doesn't represent Jews.

"I understand the opinions of Palestinians towards Jews," Rabbi Yisrael David Weiss, an American citizen, told Xinhua, adding that "Judaism rejects Zionism and its approach."

It was the first time that the Jewish religious ceremony takes place in Gaza since Israel's unilateral withdrawal from the enclave in 2005 and the evacuation of settlements which house a number of synagogues.

The rabbis arrived in Gaza on Thursday amongst a group of 86 international activists in a campaign to demand a lift of the tight embargo and to deliver aid and moral assistance to the 1.5 million population of the war-torn Gaza Strip.

Neturei Karta (Protectors of the City) was founded in 1935 by nearly 5,000 members and is active in Jerusalem, London and New York, which calls for peaceful dismantlement of the State of Israel.