Palestinian forces break up Ramallah protest over Gaza

RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories — Palestinian security forces fired stun grenades and tear gas to disperse a rare anti-government protest in the occupied West Bank Wednesday, an AFP reporter said, as hundreds demonstrated against Palestinian punitive measures against Hamasrun Gaza.

The protest in central Ramallah, the West Bank city that houses the Palestinian government, was in defiance of a temporary ban on demonstrations announced earlier Wednesday.

The protesters were demanding that 83-year-old Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas drop measures against Gaza which critics say amount to collective punishment of the two million residents there.

After the protesters were dispersed organizers pledged to again flaunt the ban by holding fresh rallies in the coming days in a new challenge for the ailing and unpopular Palestinian leader.

"There will be more protests within the next week," campaign activist Fadi Quran told AFP.

Gaza, which is only reachable from the West Bank via Israeli territory, is run by Islamists Hamas, who seized it from the Abbas-led Palestinian Authority (PA) in a 2007 near civil war.

Seemingly to hurt Hamas, the PA has introduced a series of measures against Gaza over the past year, while it has not paid the full salaries of tens of thousands of its civil servants in the strip for months.

Critics say such moves further exacerbate the split between the two parts of the Palestinian territories.

Since 2007, Israel has maintained a crippling blockade on Gaza which it says is necessary to isolate Hamas, but which detractors say amounts to collective punishment.

The protests come at a difficult time for Abbas, who was recently hospitalized for a week with a lung infection. Polls show the majority of Palestinians want him to resign.