GAZA (Reuters)
Three Hamas policemen and a member of a pro-Fatah clan were killed on Saturday in the Gaza Strip, medics said, in violence that could complicate Arab-backed efforts to reconcile rival Palestinian factions.
The latest bloodshed erupted when Hamas gunmen circled a neighborhood in Gaza City to arrest members of the Helles clan, who the Islamist group believes were behind bombings that killed five Hamas gunmen and a girl on Friday. Fatah denies the charge.
Members of the Helles clan, affiliated with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction, surrendered to Hamas policemen after clashes that wounded five Hamas officers and at least 40 other people, a Hamas police officer said.
Hamas said it arrested hundreds of gunmen, including 10 people it believes were behind the bombings.
The official Palestinian news agency WAFA said Abbas telephoned senior clan member Ahmed Helles to express solidarity. Abbas called Hamas's campaign "unacceptable" and a blow to his call for national dialogue.
The violence could hamper Egyptian efforts aimed at reconciling Abbas's Fatah movement with Hamas Islamists.
Tension between the factions spiked last year when Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip after routing pro-Abbas forces.
Hamas spokesman Islam Shahwan said one officer was killed by an explosive and two others were killed by a rocket propelled grenade during fighting in Gaza City's Shejaia suburb.
Ehab al-Ghsain, a spokesman for Hamas's Interior Ministry, said: "The Helles family has become a military force and its members have been attacking, abducting and even killing people.
Ahmed Helles, who also serves as a top Fatah official in Gaza, said he would press on with the fighting and denied his clan was behind the bombings.
|
 |
Arrests and kidnappings Last week's blasts touched off tit-for-tat crackdowns by Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Fatah in the West Bank. Hundreds of Palestinians have since been arrested.
On Thursday, Abbas ordered his Fatah-dominated security forces to release all pro-Hamas detainees in the West Bank. Twenty were released on Friday but dozens more remained in custody, a security official in the occupied West Bank said.
In the West Bank city of Nablus, Fatah militants kidnapped Mohammed Ghazal, a Hamas official, and released him hours later.
Hamas said it released more than half of the hundreds of Fatah activists in its custody. The Islamist rulers of the Gaza Strip said 10 Fatah officials, including Ibrahim Abu an-Naja, were among those released.
As part of its crackdown, Hamas closed down a radio station run by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a militant group allied with Fatah.
An official said the station's broadcasts were inciting violence against Hamas's forces and government in the Gaza Strip. The PFLP confirmed the station had stopped broadcasting. |
