Fatah arrests 50 supporters of Hamas in West Bank

MIDDLE EAST:TENSIONS BETWEEN Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas have risen to their highest level since Hamas seized control of Gaza in June 2007.

In the northern West Bank city of Nablus, Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority security forces yesterday detained more than 50 Hamas supporters, including university lecturers, students, municipal officials and mosque preachers.

On Sunday 35 Hamas supporters were rounded up in Jenin and Tulkarem following the detention of 160 Fatah members in Gaza in response to Friday's bombing which killed five Hamas fighters and a four-year-old girl at a beachfront cafe. A second bomb detonated earlier that day at another cafe killed the perpetrator and wounded three bystanders. A third bomb damaged the home of a Hamas legislator.

Hamas blamed the beachfront explosion on the "revolutionary stream", a Fatah faction loyal to former Gaza strongman Muhammad Dahlan. His followers were held responsible for stoking strife that climaxed into bitter fighting in June 2007 and the takeover of the Gaza Strip by Hamas.

The mass arrests coincided with a report from a Palestinian human rights group that torture is practised widely by the authority's security apparatus and by Hamas's military wing.

Before the latest round of arrests, each side had detained more than 1,000 people over 13 months. Some 20-30 per cent of detainees suffered torture, including beatings and being tied up in painful positions for long periods, reported Al-Haq, an affiliate of the Geneva-based International Federation of Jurists.

In spite of the tit-for-tat arrests, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas announced on Sunday that Egypt would call for the factions to meet in Cairo for reconciliation talks "within days". However, Mr Abbas reiterated his demand that Hamas should relinquish control over Gaza before dialogue could begin, a condition that Hamas has repeatedly rejected.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said the call for dialogue was "not honest" because investigations into the cafe bombing implicated senior Fatah officials who seek to "cause anarchy and chaos" in Gaza.

Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar accused Mr Abbas of preferring talks with Israel to reconciliation. Until the triple bombings took place, Gaza had been relatively calm on account of the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas which was imposed in mid-June.

Sources in Gaza say the attacks were intended to wreck both the ceasefire and prospects for Fatah-Hamas talks.