Thousands gather for Hamas rally

Thousands of people streamed into the centre of Gaza City after sundown today for a huge Hamas rally marking the end of Israel’s 38-year military presence in the seaside territory.

Fireworks lit up the sky. A stage set up at the central square was decorated with green Hamas flags and pictures of Hamas leaders killed in Israeli raids - founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin, his successor Abdel Aziz Rantisi and Gaza commander Salah Shehadeh.

Israel completed its pullout yesterday, and Gaza is in the throes of a power struggle between Hamas and the mainstream Fatah, headed by Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.

The rally was a show of strength of the Islamic Hamas, responsible for dozens of suicide bombings that have killed dozens of Israelis during more than four years of Palestinian-Israeli violence.

A relative of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh who gave her name only as Um Mohammed, 42, said Hamas attacks drove Israel out. “It’s the blood of the martyrs that liberated the land,” she said, referring to Palestinians killed in clashes with Israel and attacks. ”Their blood … purified the land.”

She added that Hamas would not lay down its arms “as long as there are Jews in Palestine”.

Hamas does not accept the existence of a Jewish state in the Middle East, though it has said it would accede to a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza as a temporary measure.

Among the thousands at the rally were visitors from Egypt who climbed over the border to Gaza – until Monday one of the most heavily guarded sites in the Middle East.

“If you only tell me to go to Jerusalem, I will walk there,” said Adel Moneim Mohammed, 41, from El Arish. ”I’d love to stay forever.”

For the first time, Hamas is fielding candidates in Palestinian parliamentary elections, after doing well in three rounds of municipal voting. Fatah and Hamas are competing for credit for the Israeli pullout, and public perception of that could weigh heavily on the parliamentary vote.

Abbas has scheduled a formal celebration of the exit of the Israelis for Wednesday at Neve Dekalim, the largest Israeli settlement, now abandoned and mostly destroyed.