Palestinians join huge Fatah rally in Gaza Strip amid rift

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza have marked the anniversary of the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat — a rare public show of support for the Fatah faction in the heartland of its Islamist rival, the militant Hamas group. Thursday’s rally passed without incident, though Gaza’s Hamas rulers have in the past blocked and violently dispersed demonstrations in solidarity with President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party. The Palestinian parties have been bitterly divided between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip for 15 years. Arafat died in 2004 at a hospital in France after two years of an Israeli siege on his West Bank headquarters. Palestinians accuse Israel of poisoning him but have offered no proof.