September 09, 2008	Tuesday	Ramazan 8, 1429

GAZA CITY, Sept 8: The Hamas-run government in the besieged Gaza Strip released 12 members of Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah party on Monday, an independent human rights group said.

The prisoners were arrested along with dozens of Fatah members in July when Hamas security forces launched a territory-wide crackdown after a beachside bombing killed five senior Hamas fighters and a five-year-old girl.

Fatah denied any responsibility for the bombing as Palestinian security forces loyal to Abbas in the Israeli-occupied West Bank launched a tit-for-tat crackdown, arresting dozens of Hamas members.

In Gaza, the incident sparked the worst bout of factional fighting since the Islamist movement seized control of the territory in June 2007 after routing Abbas loyalists in a week of clashes.

The 12 prisoners had been included in a list of “political prisoners” submitted by Fatah through intermediaries, Khalil Abu Shamala, the director of the Dameer Centre for Human Rights, said.

He said he hoped Abbas’s West Bank-based government would reciprocate by releasing Hamas members and called for a halt to all political arrests.—AFP