The Palestinian Islamist Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip have enacted a new law obliging all women to cover their hair with the Muslim hijab.

Sunday, July 26, modesty patrols were out on the streets and beaches of the Gaza Strip enforcing the new edict. They also inspected cars to ascertain that unmarried couples were not alone together. Female attorneys were earlier ordered to wear dresses in court.

The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas has banned women in Gaza from riding on motorbikes.

The ban, posted on the movement's interior ministry website, said it sought to preserve citizen safety and the stability of Palestinian society's customs and traditions.

Women are not used to riding on bikes, said a Hamas spokesman, Ihab Alghusin: they move in a frenzied manner and may cause accidents. Not mentioning that, to sit firmly on the bike, the female passengers would have to hold on to the driver: this, according to the Hamas code of conduct, is unacceptable.

Given that few women ride on motorbikes in Gaza the proclamation seems unlikely to have much effect, but it raises concerns that a new Islamisation campaign is under way.

Gaza's Islamic Hamas government has banned men from working in women's hair salons. It is the latest step in a campaign to impose strict Islamic customs on Gaza's 1.5 million people.

Hamas police said in a statement on their website that those who violated the ban would face legal consequences.

Scantily-clad mannequins and pictures of underwear models are to disappear from clothes shops in the Gaza Strip after officials announced new restrictions.

The Palestinian muslim group Hamas, which controls Gaza, claimed that the new rules were to protect public morality.

It is absolutely forbidden to place any photographic device inside the shop and it is forbidden to display revealing clothes in front of the shops, a statement from Hamas said.

These measures have stemmed from complaints and pressure by ordinary people. They have to do with upholding our traditions, a police spokesman told the Reuters news agency.

Hamas has started to enforce a ban on male hairdressers as it seeks to impose a more repressive code of Islam on Gaza.

Hamas arrested a male stylist this week, the first such detention since the party introduced the ban in March last year.

Since the surprise arrest, the handful of Gaza's male hairdressers has reportedly shied away from the salons where they work, fearful of sharing a similar fate.