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Hamas 'releases Fatah official' | Hamas 'releases Fatah official' |
(20 minutes later) | |
Hamas says it has released the top representative of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party in the Gaza Strip. | Hamas says it has released the top representative of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party in the Gaza Strip. |
Zakaria Agha was held for four days after being seized by Hamas gunmen. | |
He was detained as part of a wave of arrests of Fatah supporters after a beachside bombing killed five Hamas militants and a young girl. | He was detained as part of a wave of arrests of Fatah supporters after a beachside bombing killed five Hamas militants and a young girl. |
Fatah denied involvement in the attack and carried out its own series of arrests in the West Bank. | |
"We have released Zakaria Agha as a sign of goodwill and in response to Arab and Palestinian efforts," Hamas spokesman Taher Nunu told the AFP news agency. | |
Mr Agha and fellow senior Fatah official Ibrahim Abu Naja were among those arrested in the Hamas crackdown following the coastal bombing. | |
Tensions flared | |
Both men had been appointed by Mr Abbas to run Fatah in Gaza after Hamas took control in Gaza in June 2007. | |
Mr Abu Naja and other Fatah officials are believed still to be in custody. | |
Violence erupted over the weekend when Hamas fighters clashed with a pro-Fatah clan in Gaza City. | |
Nearly a dozen people were killed and scores wounded in the worst internal feuding since the militant Hamas faction gained power in Gaza. | |
In the wake of the fighting about 200 Fatah men fled to Israel. About 35 have since returned to Gaza, where some were detained by Hamas. |