TEL AVIV, Sept 18: A member of Hamas’s armed wing was killed on Thursday in a Gaza refugee camp in a rare ground operation by Israeli forces.

Around 30 tanks and armoured vehicles also staged an incursion into Jenin and surrounding refugee camps, imposing a curfew.

In Gaza, Hamas supporters and Palestinian security forces traded gunfire after the arrest of seven of the militant group’s members suspected of kidnapping a policeman, a statement and witnesses said.

Hamas supporters attacked police stations with stones and burned tyres in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood after the forces rounded up the Hamas members from the main square downtown.

Four people were wounded, hospital officials said.

A Palestinian interior ministry statement said the men were detained in connection with an investigation into the kidnapping by armed Hamas members of the policeman on Wednesday.

Hamas activists said he was kidnapped in retaliation for arrest of a senior Hamas member.

The clashes highlight the difficulties facing Palestinian Authority (PA) officials as they come under international pressure to rein in militants. PA statements and militants have both said they are trying to avoid internal strife. —AFP / Reuters