Hamas security forces on Monday prevented Palestinian activists from holding peaceful demonstration against an Israeli-imposed buffer zone in the Gaza Strip, organizers said.
Hamas policemen seized keys of vehicles that were set to transport tens of Palestinians to demonstrate near the no-go zone to the east of southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah, the Popular Committee Against Buffer Zone said in a statement.
The aim of the demonstration was to "expose the (Israeli) occupation and its aggressive policies," the statement said, adding that preventing people from joining the demonstration " leaves negative effects on the national work and boosts the split and division among the Palestinians."
For two months, since Israel imposed a 300-meter-wide buffer zone in northern and eastern Gaza Strip, leftist factions have been holding weekly demonstrations against this decision. Israeli forces had shot dead a Palestinian youth in one of these demonstrations.
Hamas, which seized control of Gaza by force in 2007, maintains a shaky, undeclared ceasefire with Israel since the end of Gaza war in January last year.
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