Gazans Protest Israeli Attacks On W. Bank Holy Sites

Hundreds of Palestinians on Friday staged a demonstration in Gaza City to protest Israeli mistreatment of Palestinian prisoners and recent attacks on Muslim and Christian holy sites in the West Bank.



Leading members of the Hamas, Fatah and Islamic Jihad movements led the protest, in which protesters waved Palestinian flags and shouted, "Down with Zionist terrorism."



"Israel is taking advantage of the [chaotic] internal conditions in most Arab states to carry out its plan to Judaize Muslim and Christian holy sites in the West Bank and ramp up its abuse of Palestinian prisoners," Nafez Azzam, a leading member of Islamic Jihad, which helped organize the protest, said at the rally.



On Thursday, Jewish settlers set fire to part of a Christian school in West Jerusalem, which they also sprayed with anti-Christian graffiti.



The incident came one day after Jewish settlers torched a mosque near the West Bank city of Bethlehem, which they also covered with anti-Arab and anti-Muslim graffiti.



Recently, numerous attacks by extremist Jewish settlers on Muslim and Christian places of worship have been reported, both in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and inside the self-proclaimed Jewish state itself.



Over 7,000 Palestinians – including 250 children – are currently languishing in prisons throughout Israel, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Society.



www.aa.com.tr/en - Gazze