Hundreds detained in Egypt over Gaza protests

By Will Rasmussen

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian security forces rounded up hundreds of members of the Muslim Brotherhood on Wednesday, accusing them of illegally organising protests against Israel's blockade of Gaza, security sources said.

Police and plainclothes security men beat fleeing protesters with sticks as they broke up a pro-Gaza demonstration in Cairo's central Tahrir Square by about 2,000 Islamists and leftists, but the protests soon resumed elsewhere in the city centre.

"No to the siege of Gaza," protesters chanted as they waved Palestinian flags. "Break the bonds, remove the barriers," others shouted.

The arrests -- the biggest one-day round-up for more than two years -- were carried out as the government came under increasing domestic pressure over its response to the Israeli action in Gaza.

Palestinians blew holes in the border fence overnight and thousands poured into Egypt, seeking relief from the blockade, which began in June.

The protests were among the biggest in Egypt since anti-government demonstrations during presidential and parliamentary elections in 2005.

Security sources said at least 500 people were arrested, most of them during the protests in central Cairo. Brotherhood officials put the number of arrests at between 300 and more than 1,200.

Outside the city centre, more than 70 Brotherhood activists were held in Giza and the Nile Delta, where the Islamist group has a strong popular base, a Brotherhood spokesman said.