GAZA CITY , 13 October 2007 — An isolated Gaza Strip marked its first Eid Al-Fitr yesterday since Hamas wrested control in a bloody takeover as the Islamists warned against Palestinian concessions at an upcoming US summit. Scores of Palestinians were killed earlier this year in clashes between the hard-line Islamist movement and their moderate secular Fatah rivals before Hamas seized complete control of the impoverished territory in June.

Thousands of Palestinians gathered early yesterday in the Gaza Strip for dawn and later morning prayers celebrating the festival of Eid Al-Fitr, but the atmosphere this year was hardly one of celebration.

In Gaza, the festival is marked by international isolation, empty shelves and bitter internal rivalries, casting a pall over what is meant to be one of the happiest dates in the Muslim calendar. Even Friday prayers were divided along factional lines, with separate locations for supporters of Gaza’s Hamas rulers and their rivals from Fatah.

Addressing a packed football stadium in the heart of Gaza City, the head of the sacked Hamas government urged Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas not to give in to Israeli demands at a US-sponsored meeting expected next month. “There will be a new peace conference later this year, but this conference will bring great losses, not only for the Palestinian cause but the entire Arab and Muslim world,” said Ismail Haniyeh after leading thousands in prayer.

He urged Abbas to “reject new concessions to the Israeli occupation, on the refugees, on the land, on Jerusalem, on our sacred right to that holy land.” Abbas sacked Haniyeh as prime minister when Hamas routed mainstream security forces in a week of fighting to seize control of Gaza in mid-June after months of simmering tensions and sporadic violence.

The Palestinian president, who has set up a new government in the West Bank, has ruled out dialogue with Hamas unless it renounces power and is determined to revive stalled peace talks with Israel.

After morning prayers, in accordance with Islamic tradition, hundreds of people made their way to cemeteries to visit the graves of loved ones, including those killed in internal clashes and Israeli incursions. At one graveyard veiled women recited Qur’anic verses and poured plastic pales of water over the tombstones, washing away the dust and revealing white marble inscribed with green Arabic script.

Many of the newer graves commemorate those who were “martyred at the hands of treachery and betrayal,” referring to those killed by rival factions. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights said this week that 161 people, including 41 civilians, were killed in fighting in Gaza in the week leading up to the Hamas takeover, and for many in Gaza the wounds are still fresh.

“Hamas has killed more people than the Jews,” Khalil Siyam said, as he stood over the grave of his cousin, a bodyguard for Abbas who was killed in fierce clashes on Oct. 1, 2006, which many still refer to as “Black Sunday.” The sister of the deceased, who would only give her name as Um Ahmed, narrowed her eyes at the mention of Haniyeh’s call for national unity. “They are liars, agents of Israel. They are the ones who killed national unity,” she said.

Down the hill another family circled around the grave of their dead son, Ala Makawi, who was shot dead by Israeli forces last December when he approached a border fence armed with an AK-47 and some grenades.

“My son died as a martyr for the Palestinian cause and for God,” said his father, who asked to remain anonymous. The Israeli army shot Makawi before he made it out of Gaza, but his father believes he died inside Israel. “He was a high school student, just 17 and a half years old. He did not do this for money, he did it for God. He loved jihad (holy war),” he says, smiling. “He sacrificed himself for God and for the Palestinian cause.”