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Israeli Army Kills Top Hamas Militant
JENIN, West Bank (Reuters) - Hamas and Fatah carried out tit-for-tat arrests on Sunday after deadly Gaza bomb attacks fuelled tension between the Palestinian factions.
In the West Bank, security forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas detained 20 Hamas activists in the city of Jenin. They netted 15 more in similar raids in Tulkarm.
A security official in Jenin said the Islamist detainees would be interrogated about arms caches and militant activities.
The arrests appeared to be a response to a crackdown in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, where the Islamist group rounded up more than 160 Fatah men after one of three bomb blasts killed five Hamas militants and a girl on Friday.
Hamas blamed the attacks on Fatah, which denied involvement.
The flare-up between the rival groups is one of the gravest since Hamas seized control of Gaza from Abbas a year ago.
Abbas, whose Fatah faction is stronger in the West Bank, said in Cairo on Sunday that he and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak had agreed to hold an intra-Palestinian dialogue to which Egypt would issue invitations within a few days.
An Egyptian-brokered truce between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip took effect last month. It calls on Hamas to halt rocket fire in return for Israel gradually easing its embargo of the impoverished coastal territory.
The ceasefire does not apply in the West Bank, where Israeli raids against militants have sometimes led to reprisal rocket attacks from Gaza on southern Israeli towns.
GAZA RAIDS
Israeli troops killed a Hamas militant, Shihab al-Natsheh, in the West Bank city of Hebron on Sunday. The Islamist group’s armed wing, the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigade, vowed a “swift and painful” revenge.
Hebron residents said soldiers fired at a house where Natsheh, 25, and other gunmen were hiding after they refused to surrender and shot at troops. An army bulldozer razed the house.
Locals said the Israelis believed Natsheh had been behind a suicide bombing that killed an Israeli woman in the southern city of Dimona in February. An army spokeswoman said only that soldiers clashed with gunmen in Hebron, killing one.
In Gaza, Hamas officials said police had raided the offices of a news organization, the Gaza Media Centre, which has contracts with Abu Dhabi TV and Fox News. They later said police had mistaken the owner of the centre for a Fatah supporter.
Police seeking Fatah activists also clashed with gunmen of the Army of Islam, an al Qaeda-inspired group, who feared they were being targeted. Two Army of Islam gunmen were arrested.
Hamas policemen set up roadblocks across the Gaza Strip to check for guns, explosives and suspects, local residents said.
Source: NYT
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