GAZA, July 4 (Reuters) - The leader of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, said on Wednesday the freeing of BBC journalist Alan Johnston showed his Islamist movement had brought order to the Gaza Strip by seizing power in the territory last month.

"We have been able to close this chapter which has harmed the image of our people greatly. The efforts by Hamas have produced the freedom of Alan Johnston," Meshaal told Reuters by telephone from Syria.

Referring to his Western-backed secular Palestinian rivals Fatah, he said: "It showed the difference between the era in which a group used to encourage and commit security anarchy and chaos and the current situation in which Hamas is seeking to stabilise security."

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