NABLUS: Fatah security forces of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas on Friday released several Hamas members arrested in the West Bank in recent days, a Palestinian official said.
Four Hamas insurgents, including Mohammed Ghazal, a member of the Hamas leadership in the West Bank, have been released on Abbas orders, the official said, adding that more would be freed later.
The Palestinian Authority said on Thursday that Abbas had ordered the release of all the Hamas insurgents detained by Fatah security forces recently.
The arrests were part of a tit-for-tat campaign after five members of the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas military wing, and a little girl were killed a week ago by a bomb in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas blamed Abbas supporters and began a massive crackdown across Gaza, arresting more than 300 people, mostly Fatah members.
Fatah denied involvement in the blast but later Abbas security forces retaliated by arresting dozens of Hamas members in the West Bank.The two main Palestinian factions have been deeply divided since Hamas expelled Abbas security forces from Gaza in a week of bloody street battles in June 2007, cleaving the territories into rival entities.
Both sides have meanwhile insisted that the latest arrests were not politically motivated. -AFP
