Hamas arrest 160 Fatah men after deadly Gaza blast

Gaza: Palestinian Hamas security forces in the Gaza Strip arrested 160 men aligned with the rival Fatah faction yesterday, after an explosion there killed five Hamas gunmen and a girl, Fatah officials said.

Friday's blast next to a car used by men from the armed wing of Gaza's ruling Hamas group killed the girl and three fighters. Two others died of their wounds in hospital, Hamas and medical officials said.

The blast, the third of its kind in a day, marked one of the biggest flare-ups in internal Gaza violence since Hamas routed the forces of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction to seize control of the territory a year ago.

Abbas, finding his authority limited to the occupied West Bank, split with Hamas and revived peace efforts with Israel. He recently sought reconciliation with his Islamist rivals but they have balked at his precondition that they give up Gaza.

Hamas blamed "members of the fugitive party" - a derogatory term for Fatah - for Friday night's blast at a major junction outside Gaza City.

Hamas leader Esmail Haniya convened an emergency cabinet meeting, and in a statement afterwards ministers said the bombing was "proof that Fatah is not interested in resuming any dialogue."

Fatah officials in Ramallah said Fatah had no link to the violence and blamed it on Hamas infighting, while a statement from Abbas's office said: "The claim that Fatah carried out these explosions aims to cover up the fact that there are disputes within Hamas."

A group called the "Al-Awda Brigades", which said it is aligned with Fatah, claimed responsibility for the attack. The authenticity of the claim could not be verified.

Revenge call

"The turn will come to all those who shared in executing and liquidating our people," the Al Awda statement read. "Our revenge will reach all members of the black militias of the executive force and leaders of Qassam [Hamas]."

"It is up to Fatah to determine their position straightaway, if they are with these criminals, or if they are with the ranks of the Palestinian street in confronting the enemy [Israel]," senior Hamas leader Mahmoud Al Zahar said.

"We will not permit this scene to repeat itself," he told reporters at the cemetery, adding that police had information on who was behind the attack.

Thousands turned out for the funerals of the six victims of Friday's attack, some chanting "Revenge, revenge" as shots were fired into the air.

Senior Hamas leader Khalil Al Hayya, whose nephew was killed in the blast and whose oldest son was wounded, vowed to punish those responsible.

"Those who carried out this crime are making war on God, on the security of Gaza, and on the resistance," he said.

"Those who did this must be hanged in a public square and must be fired upon," Hayya said before the burials.

The rights group said Hamas-run security forces had raided more than 40 offices, sporting clubs, charities and other organisations, most of them linked to Fatah, and seized control of government offices across Gaza. Hamas security forces confiscating documents and computers. Both Fatah and a Palestinian human rights watchdog put the number of detainees at 160.

Among those held was a Palestinian said to have worked as a cameraman for a German television station. But a Palestinian security source said the man, Sawah Abu Saif, was arrested as a suspected Fatah activist and not for being a journalist.

The factional violence has eclipsed Israeli-Palestinian fighting in Gaza, where an Egyptian-brokered truce has largely held since last month despite some violations on both sides.