Hamas forces clash with Gaza protesters

GAZA, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Hamas security men beat protesters, hurled stun grenades and fired in the air to disperse open-air prayers the rival Fatah faction held in the Gaza Strip today in defiance of the territory's Islamist rulers.

Palestinian medical officials said at least 20 people, some with gunshot wounds, were taken to hospital for treatment.

''They are chasing and beating and arresting us as if they were occupation soldiers,'' said one young Fatah supporter in Gaza's Maghazi refugee camp, likening Hamas forces to Israelis.

The street showdowns, which erupted three months after Hamas violently took control of the Gaza Strip, had been widely expected after Hamas said it would not allow Fatah to conduct ''political prayers'' outdoors on the Muslim rest day.

The gatherings have become focal points for clashes between Hamas's Executive Force security wing that polices the territory, and members of Fatah, once the dominant faction in the Gaza Strip and now holding sway only in the West Bank.

The Executive Force took away three Palestinian journalists -- two working for Japanese television and the third man a photographer for the Associated Press -- and roughed up five other reporters in the latest confrontations, witnesses said.

The three detained journalists were later released, their employers said. The Jerusalem-based Foreign Press Association demanded an end to a ''coordinated ... policy of harassment'' of the media.

The Hamas administration in the Gaza Strip also seized three members of Fatah's local leadership and an adviser to West Bank-based President Mahmoud Abbas, saying they had instigated ''chaos''. The three Fatah men were released later in the day, said a spokesman for the Hamas-run Interior Ministry.

With tensions still high, Fatah called for new protests to begin today evening.

''CHAOS AND SABOTAGE'' Earlier, Hamas deployed its forces in several locations to ''prevent any action that may take place,'' Youssef al-Zahar, an officer in the group's security wing told reporters in Gaza City, at a spot where Fatah members gathered for weekly prayers.

''Our religion encourages us to encourage people to pray, but we are trying to prevent people from using prayers to incite chaos and sabotage public property,'' Zahar said.

Abbas appealed for calm in remarks quoted by a local news agency, calling on worshippers ''to avoid friction or confrontation with the putschists and armed militias who do not shy from inflicting the ugliest oppression upon citizens.'' The Western-backed leader has described Hamas's routing of his Fatah forces in Gaza in fighting in June as a coup. Hamas has said Abbas acted unlawfully in subsequently dismissing a unity government it formed with Fatah in March.

Western powers and Israel, which boycott Hamas, have resumed aid to the West Bank since June but Gaza remains under embargo.

Officials from Fatah accused Hamas of killing one of its members overnight and said 26 of its supporters had been detained over the past day.

An Executive Force spokesman denied any Hamas involvement in the killing, in which a second Fatah man was wounded. He said an investigation was under way.

REUTERS PDT VC2250