Twelve Palestinians and a French photographer wounded Friday in clashes between supporters of President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement and Hamas executive force in Gaza, witnesses and medics said.

Palestinian medics in Gaza said that a French citizen works as a photographer was lightly injured in his leg by fragments of a handmade grenade thrown by Fatah supporters at members of Hamas executive force in Gaza City.

The medics also said that two more people were injured during the clashes in Gaza City while 10 others sustained their injuries from a similar clash in southern Gaza town of Rafah.

Members of the Hamas Executive Forces arrest a supporter of rival Fatah movement following clashes in Gaza City on Aug. 31, 2007. 

The clashes erupted as thousands of Fatah supporters demonstrated at the end of the weekly Muslim Friday prayers in open areas in the Gaza Strip.

Witnesses said that at the end of the prayers, Fatah supporters chanted songs against Hamas and hurled homemade hand grenades at members of Hamas executive force.

Fatah movement had earlier called on its supporters in Gaza in a leaflet to go for Friday prayers in open areas instead of praying in mosques "used by Hamas movement to incite against the movement and against the Palestinian leadership."

Hamas movement and its militants took control of the Gaza Strip in mid June following bloody clashes with security forces and Fatah militants loyal to Abbas.

(Xinhua News Agency September 1, 2007)