| A video of the activities can be seen at the link. Another brief video can be seen here. |
Dozens of security officials, many in plain clothes, dispersed a demonstration in northern Gazoo, the eyewitnesses said. Dozens of people had been protesting there.
Journalists were prevented from filming or taking pictures at the protest, an AFP news hound said.
In a separate protest in central Gazoo, dozens of people demonstrated, including by setting tires on fire.
Hamas-run police front man Ayman al-Batniji said in a statement that "police in the area of Deir Balah dealt with a group of citizens who closed roads and ignited fires," referring to the protest in central Gazoo.
"The police have restored calm and order, and a number of violators were enjugged
Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please!
The protests had been organized to call for an improvement in the quality of life in Gazoo, which suffers from high unemployment, widespread poverty and poor electricity and water infrastructure.
They were also seen as a challenge to the Hamas terror group, which has ruled the Strip since 2007.
A statement purporting to be from the organizers said the protests were non-political and against the rising cost of living and taxes in the Strip.
Videos posted on social media appeared to show Hamas security forces firing in the air to disperse the protests.
Social media posts were accompanied with the hashtag "We want to live" in Arabic.
The protests had ended by Thursday evening and the situation was calm, an AFP journalist on the scene and eyewitnesses said.
The Paleostinian Non-Governmental Organisations Network, which includes more than 100 charities, said in a statement it "strongly condemned the campaign of arrests and aggression that the security forces launched in Jabalia in northern Gazoo against the right of dozens of citizens."
It said the protesters were "gathering peacefully to demand an improvement in the life quality in the Gazoo Strip."
Hussein al-Sheikh, a close confidant of Paleostinian Authority Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial..., expressed support for the protesters.
"Gazoo is rising up in the face of oppressors," he wrote on Twitter.