Thousands of gathered in theGaza Strip on Thursday to commemorate 18 years since the passing of Palestinian political leader Yasser Arafat. The commemoration in the Hamas-ruled besieged Palestinian enclave was organised by the Fatah Movement which Arafat founded in the 1950s. Participants raised pictures of Arafat and waved Fatah and Palestinian flags to the music of patriotic songs. The Islamist Hamas movement took full control of the Gaza Strip in 2007 after an armed conflict with Fatah, although the latter party is still allowed to operate there. A large billboard at the event read “Yasser …