By Xinhua
Gaza : A spokesman for Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in Gaza on Saturday acknowledged that his movement’s Executive Forces “had recently committed some little mistakes” in dealing with journalists and pro-Fatah prayers.
Fawzi Barhoum told reporters that “The executive force was founded in crucial circumstances. It was founded to back the police and the security forces, but after taking control of Gaza, it was asked alone to restore discipline and order.”
He attributed the mistakes to the closure of Gaza and the embargo imposed on the Palestinians, which “had obstructed sending members of the force abroad to training on police skills in order to know how to deal with riots makers and journalists.”
Meanwhile, Interior Ministry spokesman Ihab al-Ghusein said that most of the executive forces are basically “holy fighters, who were trained only to confront the Israeli incursions in the Gaza Strip.”
“There are mistakes here or there related to the way how members of the force are dealing with the situation, therefore, the interior ministry began to train them on police skills,” said al-Ghusein.
On Friday, over 23 Palestinians, including five local cameramen, were wounded during clashes between thousands of Fatah supporters and Hamas executive forces at the end of the weekly Muslim Friday prayers in open areas in the Gaza Strip.
The state-run Palestinian Satellite Television showed images of Hamas executive forces severely beating up Fatah prayers in the Gaza Strip, throwing them into jeeps and taking them to prison.
The deposed Hamas government in the Gaza Strip decided Tuesday to prohibit thousands of Fatah supporters from praying in public and open areas in the coastal enclave.
Earlier, Fatah movement, which suffered a fiasco during the fighting with Hamas in Gaza in mid June, accused Hamas of using mosques for incitement and called on all the Palestinians to pray in public and open areas.