Teenager killed in rally at Gaza border

A protest by tens of thousands of Palestinians against the closure of the Gaza Strip’s borders turned violent Saturday when several hundred of them rushed the Rafah border terminal to cross into Egypt, prompting Palestinian security forces to open fire.

Medical workers said Ahmed Qudeh, 17, was killed by a bullet wound to the head. Seven other protesters suffered injuries from being trampled by the crowd.

The rally was a measure of Gazans’ desperation since Israel and Egypt sealed off the coastal territory after Hamas took control of it in June, driving out the rival Fatah movement. Since then, few of Gaza’s 1.5 million people have been able to leave or enter the strip, and cross-border commerce has all but halted.

Hamas speakers at the rally directed much of their ire at Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, whose power is now limited to the West Bank. Hamas accuses him of cooperating with Israel to keep Gaza isolated and break the Islamist movement’s control.

Israel, which along with the United States and European Union considers Hamas a terrorist organization, says it closed its borders with Gaza as a security measure.

The Rafah terminal, the only crossing between Gaza and Egypt, operates under a joint agreement among Israel, Egypt and the European Union. Israel opposes reopening that crossing, and European monitors have left.

Saturday’s rally put Hamas in an ambiguous position. Its political leaders organized the protest to call outside attention to the plight of Gazans. But the movement’s Executive Force militia was there, acting as a border police force.

“This is a peaceful protest to voice our message that we are looking for freedom,” Issa Mashar, a Hamas leader in Rafah, told the crowd. “We came to send a message from the people who are suffering.”

But when hundreds of Hamas supporters rushed the terminal, Hamas militiamen opened fire, forcing them to retreat. Witnesses said most of the shooting was directed into the air. Sami abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, said the fatal shooting of the teenager was unintentional.

The violence came a day after the latest Hamas crackdown on Fatah-inspired dissent, a clash in Gaza City that left 20 people wounded and at least 170 Fatah members in jail.

Friday’s clash erupted after a demonstration in which several thousand people held afternoon prayers outside mosques to protest what Fatah called the use of sermons by pro-Hamas imams to incite factional violence. Hamas gunmen in uniforms fired into the air and used clubs to disperse an anti-Hamas march after the prayers.

On Saturday, Hamas freed most of the arrested men, some whose heads had been shaved. It set unusually high bail, equivalent to $243, for 20 protesters still being held.

In Jordan, Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi said the division between Hamas and Fatah “will not help the peace process” that the U.S. is promoting between Israeli leaders and Abbas. His remarks, before a meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah II, were at odds with those of Israeli and U.S. officials, who want to keep Hamas sidelined.

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boudreaux@latimes.com

Special correspondent Abu Alouf reported from Gaza City and Times staff writer Boudreaux from Jerusalem.