By Nidal al-Mughrabi GAZA, June 4 (Reuters) - Women journalists at Palestine Television said on Monday they would keep working but were taking precautions after Islamist radicals in Gaza threatened to "slit their throats" if they did not cover their hair. Joined by colleagues from other media, staff at the station controlled by the Palestinians' secular president, Mahmoud Abbas, staged a demonstration at their Gaza offices. They are taking Friday's faxed threat from the shadowy Righteous Swords of Islam "very seriously", said director Mohammed al-Dahoudi. The Swords are one of several groups, including the Army of Islam which last week issued video of a hostage British journalist, that have emerged in Gaza recently and which seem to draw their inspiration from al Qaeda. They have attacked Internet cafes and other centres of "immorality". Lana Shahin, an editor at Palestine Television, said she was worried by the threat and would take steps to protect herself -- but would not change her appearance: "I will avoid being alone in the next few days until we see what happens." "This won't affect the way I work or the way I wear my clothes," she told Reuters. "I'm just a journalist wearing jeans and a T-shirt. It has nothing to do with immorality." Like most women in Gaza, where conservative Muslim values are popular and support for the ruling Hamas Islamist movement is strong, most of the station's female staff wear headscarves. But one reporter who does not said: "It is not an act of Islam to use the sword to tell people what you think. "This can only spread crime and not Islamic values." She asked that her name not be used. "CALM BEFORE STORM" The threatening statement on Friday said: "The corruption that is coming from their mouths and their faces ... raises fears for the future of our children. You must never think that our silence betrays fear ... It is the calm before the storm." Dahoudi said factional tensions between Hamas and Abbas's secular Fatah movement -- which erupted in deadly violence in Gaza last month -- might partly account for the development. "The target is the institution and not the employees," he said, noting Hamas officials had criticised the station lately. However, Hamas officials deny all connection with the Swords and other such groups. Acting parliamentary speaker Ahmad Bahar of Hamas said: "The government should strike with an iron fist against whomever threatens and attacks journalists." Factionalism and Israeli and international sanctions against Hamas have weakened the ability of Palestinian security forces to curb violence from Islamist radicals, officials say. Members of the Righteous Swords of Islam have never made themselves known in public and, unlike more established armed gruops, they have no known spokesman. Little is clear about their thinking or how far they are merely inspired by the likes of Osama bin Laden as opposed to following orders from abroad. About 50 attacks in recent months have damaged Internet cafes, stores selling television satellite dishes, barber shops and pharmacies as well as a church and other Christian sites. The Army of Islam posted a Web video on a site used by al Qaeda on Friday showing BBC Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston, kidnapped three months ago. It is unclear how that group fits into the welter of armed bands in Gaza driven by a mixture of politics, religion, moneymaking and clan rivalries.
