More than 1,000 Fatah dissidents marched through Gaza City declaring their allegiance to a rival Hamas security force, two days after deadly clashes between the Palestinian factions.
'We are with the Hamas government standing against corruption,' the demonstrators shouted.
Marching in formation, stomping feet and swinging arms, the militants fired into the air and shouted religious slogans.
'What's your goal?' shouted a leader. 'Allah,' responded the marching soldiers. 'What's your path?' 'Jihad,' a thousand voices responded in unison.
The 1,000 Fatah defectors are loyal to Khaled Mussa Abu Hilal, an ex-Fatah official who went to work for the Hamas government shortly after the Islamists won elections in January. The Fatah Central Committee promptly expelled Abu Hilal.
'Today we say that our closest brothers are Hamas. Fatah they are the ones who are ruining our country,' said Ismail al-Ishqar, a 21-year-old who was formerly in the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, an armed Fatah offshoot.
'We have leaders from Al-Aqsa today who have ruled Gaza for 10 years and they haven't done anything.'