About 10,000 members and supporters of Hamas demonstrated yesterday against plans by Israeli opponents of the planned Gaza Strip evacuation to rally at a disputed Jerusalem holy site.

Jerusalem Police chief Ilan Franco has said he would block the April 10 rally at the site, known to Jews as Temple Mount and to Muslims as Haram as-Sharif, because the protesters posed a security risk.

"We voice our protest and condemnation against the continuous Zionist attempt to attack Al Aqsa Mosque and the holy sites," Hamas leader Said Siam told reporters at the Nusseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. "If those criminals carry out the crime we leave this matter to our military wing and there will be no quiet, God willing," Siam said.

About 2,000 masked but unarmed, uniformed men attended the rally. One threatened over a loudspeaker that "Qassam rockets are going to be ready and aimed toward (the Israeli town of) Sderot on April 10 ... if the Zionists attack Al Aqsa Mosque."

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon yesterday said he would prefer not to destroy Jewish settler homes in the occupied Gaza Strip when Israel pulls out this year.

Meanwhile, West Bank intelligence chief Tawfik Tirawi has resigned over the ongoing security chaos in the territories, a security official said. "He tendered his resignation last night (Thursday) but Abu Mazen has not accepted it yet," the official said, using the nom-de-guerre of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) has called on Israel to halt all measures that would prevent Jerusalem becoming a city sharing sovereignty and citizenship between the Jewish and a future Palestine.

The call came in an open letter posted on the Geneva-based WCC's website from its international affairs commission expressing alarm at what it called Israeli actions that would pre-determine the status of the city under any peace accord.

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Hamas rally: Palestinian supporters of Hamas in Nusseirat refugee camp in central Gaza Strip. (AFP)