Hamas security forces dispersed a rally calling for an end to the bitter Palestinian schism in Gaza city on Saturday, on the eve of the second anniversary of Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip in June 2007.

Some 3,000 people attended the rally organized by the left-wing Popular Front to Liberate Palestine (PFLP), chanting slogans to call on rival Fatah and Hamas groups to end the two-year political rift between Hamas-ruled Gaza and the Fatah-dominated West Bank.

Rabah Muhana, a senior PFLP Gaza leader, told Xinhua that the police attacked the demonstrators, leaving two people injured and three detained.

Witnesses said Hamas policemen moved after thousands of Gazans chanted behind a cheerleader "We don't want Abbas or Haneya, we want a national unity."

Ismail Haneya is prime minister of the Hamas unity government, which was deposed by President Mahmoud Abbas after Hamas took control of the coastal enclave.

Sunday marks the second anniversary of Hamas seizure of the Gaza Strip by force after routing pro-Abbas Fatah security forces from the impoverished and narrow densely-populated enclave. Since then, Gaza has been under a tight Israeli blockade.

More than 100 Abbas's security forces and Fatah activists were killed in a week of armed confrontations in the streets of the Gaza Strip.

Hamas considered what it did "a legal action" since it is the party which won a majority in the 2006 parliamentary elections, while Abbas branded Hamas takeover "as a coup against the legitimate Palestinian leadership in the Gaza Strip."

Talal Oukal, a Palestinian academic at al-Azhar University in Gaza said "during the two years, Hamas has established an entity of an authority in the Gaza Strip, and now it presents itself as an important political party, and calls on everyone to deal with it as a major political representative of the Palestinians."

He told Xinhua that Hamas movement political platform "hasn't offered the Palestinians anything, neither a political program nor a strategy of armed resistance," adding "if this rift with Fatah continues, I believe it would completely destroy the Palestinian national aspirations."

"Since Hamas took control of Gaza, it has been using excessive force against anyone who opposes its policy. Their spies in the streets report to interior security officers about what people are saying about Hamas," said Abu Mo'aweya, a Fatah activist, who has been in a Hamas prison for two weeks.

Abu Mo'aweya, who declined to give his full name, said Hamas is always complaining its West Bank members are repressed by Abbas security forces, but "they never talked about how they are treating Fatah prisoners, and its militants use their extreme mighty to keep their grip on Gaza."

Muhana accused both Hamas and Fatah of failing to consider the national interests of their own people by cracking down on each other in Gaza and the West Bank.

He said "It is the poor people, who had paid the heaviest price ever over the past two years, mainly in the Gaza Strip, who suffer not only from this dangerous rift that divided our homeland, but also from the tight Israeli siege, which weakened our lives and our economy."

Egypt has been mediating between the two rival groups to reach an inter-reconciliation agreement, but five rounds of dialogue held in Cairo since March have so far failed to produce an agreement.

The formation of a unity government, rebuilding the security apparatuses, the elections law and reforming Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), remain the thorniest issues. The two parties agreed in principle on forming a unity government and holding the election before January 2010.

Saleh Zidan, a Gaza leader of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), said "the Egyptian mediators are pushing for a Palestinian deal, which is likely to be finalized and inked on July 7 in Cairo."

(Xinhua News Agency June 14, 2009)