Protests against Anti-Islam Film in Gaza, Tel Aviv
Several hundred Palestinians in the Gaza Strip protested on Thursday against an anti-Muslim film that has sparked deadly riots in Libya and Yemen.
The protest, called by the ruling Hamas government's ministry of religious endowments, comes after two days of demonstrations that have left four U.S. embassy staff including the ambassador dead in Libya and a protester shot dead in Yemen.
Ismail Radwan, Hamas's minister of religious endowments, called on the protesters gathered outside the legislative council building in Gaza City to "boycott American products."
He called for new demonstrations to be held after Friday prayers.
Protesters held banners reading "Where are you Muslims, when your prophet is being insulted?"
In Tel Aviv, around 60 Arab-Israeli protesters demonstrated outside the U.S. embassy, in a protest called by the Islamic Movement in Israel.
"We came to protest against the producers of this movie and the United States which allowed it to be made," protester Zahi Nijidat told AFP.
Demonstrators chanted slogans against U.S. President Barack Obama and criticized the film, a low-budget amateur production available on the Internet that was largely unheard of before the violent demonstrations that rocked several capitals since Tuesday.
The protests started in Cairo, where demonstrators stormed the U.S. embassy and replaced the American flag with a black and white flag used by some Islamist groups.
In Libya's second city Benghazi, demonstrators attacked the U.S. consulate, and four U.S. officials, including Ambassador Chris Stevens, were killed.
On Thursday, protesters attacked the American embassy in Yemen's capital Sanaa, where police shot dead one protester and wounded five others when they opened fire on a crowd, and there were also renewed demonstrations in Cairo.
Source: Agence France Presse
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