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GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- About 30 pro-Fatah Palestinians who fled to Israel after fierce clashes in the Gaza Strip were sent back to the Hamas-controlled enclave on Sunday, and the Islamist group said its forces immediately detained them.
They were among 180 supporters of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction granted refuge in Israel on Saturday after nine Palestinians were killed and 95 wounded during a Hamas assault on their Gaza City neighborhood.
Several other Palestinians who fled the Gaza Strip will be brought later on Sunday to the West Bank city of Ramallah, where Abbas' government is based, Fatah sources said.
The fighting in Gaza, part of a crackdown by Hamas after a July 25 bombing that killed five of its armed members and a girl, was the bloodiest since the group routed its secular rivals and took over the coastal enclave more than a year ago.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said dozens of those who fled the fighting returned to the Gaza Strip and were detained.
The 30 men sent back to Gaza are pro-Fatah members of the Helles clan, who were criticized by Fatah officials in the West Bank for failing to resist Hamas' takeover in June 2007.
A spokesman for Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Abbas had asked Israel to send the men back to Gaza. The spokesman said the wounded would stay in Israel for treatment and the rest would be returned to the Gaza Strip.
Abbas' office declined to comment on whether he had approved the return of the Fatah supporters to Gaza.
Fatah's Hussein Al-Shaikh, the senior civil affairs official in the Palestinian Authority, said only, "We are discussing with the Israelis how to allow the people to return to Gaza."
Israel Gives Fatah Fighters to Hamas
04 August 2008
The Assciated Press
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