Gazans Stopped At Checkpoints! Prevented From Going On Haj!!

...by Hamas:

Palestinian pilgrims bound for Mecca were prevented from leaving the Gaza Strip via Egypt on Saturday as the enclave's Hamas Islamist rulers and the rival leadership in the West Bank traded blame for the hold-up.

The pilgrims, hoping to reach Saudi Arabia next week for the annual haj pilgrimage, told Reuters that Hamas police set up checkpoints 300 meters (yards) from the Rafah border post with Egypt and turned them away. Hamas security also barred journalists from the border area of the town of Rafah.

...Saudi Arabia says it has granted visas only to Palestinians who registered for the haj through the Palestinian Authority, controlled by President Mahmoud Abbas's secular Fatah faction in the West Bank. Some 3,000 people in Gaza have done so.

Not that there will be a reaction to this from the West.

Technorati Tag: Hamas and Haj.