Ikhwanweb :: The Muslim Brotherhood Official English Website

RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- Hundreds of Palestinians from lands occupied in 1948 and international activists demonstrated at the Beit Hanoun (Eretz) crossing linking the Gaza Strip with 1948 Palestine to mark the first anniversary of the war on Gaza in protest of the continued siege on the densely populated strip.

Demonstrators called for an end to the siege on Gaza and the implementation of the Goldstone report. They also called for an end to the inter-Palestinian discord and for unity between Fatah and Hamas to face the challenges. Demonstrators also expressed their wish for unity amongst Palestinians in the 1948 occupied lands, the West Bank and the Gaza StripSlogans were chanted protesting against the siege and starvation of the people in Gaza and against the US wall of shame being built by Egypt on the Palestinian-Egyptian border.

Ismail Haneyya, the Palestinian Prime Minster in the Gaza government spoke to the demonstrators over the phone and expressed the  gratitude of himself  and that of the people of Gaza for their supportive stand. Sheikh Kamal al-Khatib, the deputy head of the Islamic movement, who headed a delegation that participated in the demonstration said: "We have come to say to our people in Gaza: we are with you because we are a part of you and you are a part of us.. we did not come here in solidarity, because we consider ourselves to be part of you, despite being divided by occupation walls." He called on the people of Gaza to persevere and not raise the white flag in surrender adding that Gaza represents dignity, defiance and freedom and it has become a symbol for free people everywhere. Khatib condemned the continued siege on the Gaza Strip and called on the Gazans to persevere as the "dawn of freedom is nigh."

On the other side of the Beit Hanoun crossing, hundreds of Palestinians and foreign sympathisers also held a similar demonstration.