Police wield batons against protesters in Gaza
Palestinian police with batons beat back stone-throwing protesters who gathered outside the European Commission building in Gaza City today to protest against cartoons that have touched off Muslim protests worldwide.
The caricatures, first published in Denmark and then reprinted in various European newspapers, show the Prophet Mohammed – itself an offence because Islamic tradition bars the depiction of the faith’s founder.
Fanning the flames was one cartoon showing Mohammed wearing a bomb-shaped turban.
About 200 protesters arrived at the European Commission building, waving green flags symbolising the Islamic Hamas movement and the yellow flags of the secular Fatah Party.
“O Prophet Mohammed, we are ready to redeem you with our souls and our blood,” they chanted, and some carried banners calling for a boycott of Danish products.
Roughly a dozen teenagers began throwing stones at Palestinian police guarding the building, who hit them with their batons to chase them away.
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