Hamas forces seized the leaders of Fatah in Gaza early yesterday, Fatah officials said, upping the stakes in a week of tit-for-tat arrests between the bitter Palestinian rivals.
Hamas security officers seized around 15 senior Fatah members from their homes in the roundup, the Fatah officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they fear for their safety in Hamas-controlled Gaza.
The arrests came one day after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas ordered the release of Hamas detainees, although it was not immediately clear if any had been released.
The men arrested yesterday included three Fatah-affiliated district governors and Abbas’ two highest Gaza representatives, the officials said.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri would not confirm the number or the identity of those arrested, but said the arrests were in response to Fatah’s seizures of “Hamas political leaders” in the West Bank.
Both Fatah and Hamas have periodically carried out arrest sweeps targeting rivals in the territories they control. Several of the men arrested by Hamas yesterday have been seized before.
The new Hamas crackdown was sparked by a July 25 explosion in Gaza that killed five Hamas members and a six-year-old girl. Hamas blamed Fatah for the blast and began rounding up Fatah supporters. Fatah denied the charge and launched its own crackdown targeting Hamas supporters.
Fatah said around 200 of its men had been seized in the past week. Fatah has arrested roughly the same number of Hamas members.
Abbas issued an order on Thursday to free the detainees, but the releases had not been confirmed.
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