Last Friday, Fatah held a major rally in the Gaza Strip celebrating the anniversary of its first terror attack. Fatah officials said that there was close to a million, if not more than a million people, while Hamas officials say that the crowd was no more than 200,000.
While the rally seemed to be going well, parts of it were forced to be cancelled for what appears to have been an outbreak of scuffles between supporters of former Fatah strongman Mohammed Dahlan and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Yahiya Rabah, a top Fatah official in Gaza, said the rally was cancelled "due to the huge number of participants and logistical failures." But witnesses said one pushing match was between supporters of Abbas and partisans of Fatah's former Gaza security commander Mohammed Dahlan, who was expelled from the party because of conflicts with Abbas. Another Fatah official, who spoke anonymously because he did not want to embarrass the party, said the rally was cancelled because hundreds of Dahlan supporters jumped up on the stage and clashed with Abbas supporters.Here are a selection of photos from the day.
