The engagement party for the dozens of blind and partially-sighted Palestinians men in Gaza included a band of marching boy scouts, singing girls in white dresses and a man dancing in a monkey suit.

The 38 men stood on a stage while their fiancées sat with hundreds of guests below at a large hall in Gaza City. Hamas hosted the party; and the stern militant group frowns on adult women taking part in mixed-gender parties.

"I've always wanted to marry a blind or a disabled man  - it's a religious duty," said Nisrin Abu Awda, 26. She wore a face veil and a long black cloak. She was set to marry Khader Baroud, who was blinded
by shrapnel fire during Israel's three-week military assault on Hamas in Gaza earlier this year.

Many of the sight-impaired men were to marry sighted women  - and despite their disability, most said they wanted to marry a woman pretty by Gazan standards: tall, fair and with blue or green-colored eyes.

The mass engagement was the first for sight-impaired Gazans, but Hamas loyalists have held celebrations for others, like injured militants and impoverished couples. They are funded by the Tayseer Association for Marriage and Development, which also matches up lonely singles.

The men wore black suits, white shirts and, by coincidence, most spotted red neckties as well. Some wore sunglasses as they walked up a one of Gaza City's main roads. Most clutched the hands of minders who led them to a local hall, accompanied by boy scouts banging large drums, Hamas police on horses and music blaring from loudspeakers.

Young girls wearing headscarves and white dresses that eerily resembled wedding gowns sang for guests, and men dressed in monkey and rabbit suits danced for the crowd. It wasn't entirely clear why Hamas loyalists had dressed the little girls up as brides or arranged for monkeys and rabbits to dance for the seated audience.

Hamas seized power of Gaza in June 2007 and is sworn to Israel's destruction  - something pointedly noted at the celebration. Baroud told guests that they would produce children who would fight Israel.

"These disabled people will produce children...who will liberate Palestine," he thundered to cheering applause.

But loyalties can easily be purchased in Gaza, where most disabled Palestinians  - like most other residents of the coastal strip  - live in poverty.

Mohammed Abu Mousa, a 25-year-old groom, was waiting for a $1,500 cheque from the Tayseer Association to help furnish the spare room in his parents' home, where he hoped to set up house with his future wife.

His matchmaking-mother helped find Abu Mousa's bride in the same sandy, shabby neighborhood of the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis. But without the money, Abu Mousa can't afford to marry, and planned to take a bus to his own engagement party, unable to afford a $10 taxi fare.

But the smiling young man said his bride had made peace with their terrible financial plight. "She's a good girl, patient and has good moral values," Abu Mousa said. He said his mother had even made sure the girl was good looking, even though he couldn't tell with his own limited vision.

"She's even pretty," he said laughing. "She's got pale skin and green eyes."

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