Hamas accused the Palestinian Authority on Sunday of arresting more than 800 of its members in the West Bank in 2011, The Palestinian Ma’an news agency reported.
The Islamist movement said in a report that 350 people of those detained by the Palestinian Authority (PA) were prisoners freed from Israeli jails and eight were journalists.
In the Nablus region alone, 310 Hamas members were detained in 2011, according to the report, which said that 67 Hamas members were tried in courts.
The report also accused the PA of discriminating against Hamas employee by firing 21 in 2011.
Hamas and the Palestinian Authority led by the Fatah movement routinely trade accusations of responsibly for the failure of unity talks between them
On Saturday, Hamas pledged to quit a residence of Fatah leader Mahmud Abbas its fighters seized in 2007, in reconciliation talks between the two main factions, AFP reported.
“We tell our brothers in Fatah that they can take the home of president Abu Mazen,” Hamas official Khalil al-Haya said at a joint news conference with Fatah’s Zakariya al-Agha, using the name by which Abbas is familiarly known.
But Diab al-Louh, a Fatah official in Gaza, told official Palestinian news agency WAFA that Hamas insisted on maintaining its own guard on the premises.
“Hamas in Gaza informed the Fatah leadership after a meeting in Gaza that they can receive president Mahmoud Abbas’s house, while keeping security personnel deployed by Hamas outside the house under the pretext of protecting the house as it is personal property,” he said.
Last month, Abbas, the West Bank-based president, met Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal in Cairo and they decided on a process to pave the way for Hamas to join a reformed Palestine Liberation Organisation and for long-delayed Palestinian elections.
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