Hamas police and supporters on Monday beat a number of professors and students of Al Azhar University, the last bastion of Fatah in Gaza, wounding several, witnesses said. Hamas denied it had acted improperly and said the police restored order.The students and staff were protesting a rally that Hamas insisted on holding inside the university campus in memory of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the founder of the militant Islamic group who was killed in an Israeli air strike in March 2004.Al Azhar University has continued to operate, despite having been raided five times since Hamas routed rival Fatah forces and took control of Gaza last June.
Before dawn on Monday, Hamas activists entered the compound and set up equipment for the rally, hanging pictures of Hamas leaders and Hamas flags. When members of the academic staff protested outside, Hamas police beat them with clubs, said Ayman Shaheen, a professor of political science. Shaheen said he was hit twice. "All they know is the language of force," Shaheen said of Hamas. "We try to talk to them but they don't listen."
A number of female students were then attacked at the rally by participants who mostly came from outside, many armed with clubs, witnesses said. Tahrir Abu Latifa, 19, a student of commerce, was taken to Gaza's main Al Shifa Hospital unconscious but was able to leave a few hours later.