GAZA CITY, June 28: The spiritual guide of the Hamas, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, flouted his house arrest order and took part in an anti-US march here on Friday.

The blind and wheelchair-bound Yassin, officially placed under house arrest four days ago by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, sat in the passenger seat of a jeep, while six armed bodyguards surrounded the vehicle on foot.

More than 1,000 people marched in the anti-US rally to the centre of Gaza City, including Hamas workers, the smaller Islamic Jihad group and Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed offshoot of Arafat’s own Fatah movement.

Palestinian police flanked the protesters but did not intervene.

On Monday, police and security officers placed Yassin under house arrest on orders from Arafat, who is under US and Israeli pressure to rein in anti-Israeli hardliners.

Yassin and several members of his family and entourage dismissed the house arrest at the time, saying they had not been officially informed.

Yassin reiterated on Friday that “no one informed me of the house arrest”, in a brief statement to reporters at the demonstration.

Senior Hamas leader Ismail Abu Shanab also said in Gaza that the movement was “not afraid” police would harm their spiritual leader.

But the Israel correspondent for France 2 television said Palestinian security forces had seized a videocassette his crew had filmed showing Yassin at the demonstration.

“Members of Force 17 (Arafat’s personal guard) seized the videocassette,” Charles Enderlin said, adding that he had protested the seizure to the Palestinian Authority.

The march was held to denounce US President George W. Bush’s demand in a key Middle east policy speech on Monday that the Palestinians elect a new leadership “not compromised by terror” in exchange for US support for an independent Palestinian state.

Ibrahim Abu al-Hijaa, deputy speaker of the Palestinian legislative council, told the protesters that Bush’s speech was “a cover for Zionist terrorism and the war that (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon is launching against our people.

“Bush has given Sharon’s government the right to invade our towns and villages and destroy our institutions,” he said.—AFP