Hamas arrested scores of rival Fatah party members in night-time raids in the Gaza Strip, Fatah officials say, hours after Islamist gunmen opened fire on a mass rally, killing seven people.
The Hamas force that has policed Gaza since the Islamist group seized power in June "arrested scores of senior Fatah members and members of our branch offices last night," senior Fatah official Ibrahim Abu al-Naga told AFP.
The raids came hours after Hamas police violently dispersed a crowd of hundreds of thousands of people, mostly Fatah supporters, who had massed in the heart of Gaza City to commemorate late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
Seven people were killed and another 130 wounded in the violence, medics said.
The gathering was the largest mobilisation of support for the Fatah party of Mr Arafat and his successor Mahmud Abbas since Hamas routed the movement's security forces in a week of bloody clashes five months ago.
In an interview with the Hamas-run newspaper, senior Hamas leader Mahmud al-Zahar said his movement "has to take all necessary steps to prevent a repeat of the troubling events in cooperation with official forces".
A Fatah official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Hamas arrested about 400 Fatah members following the rally, and had searched numerous houses and confiscated personal effects.
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has declared a three-day period of mourning to "pay homage to the martyrs killed by the bullets of the putschists," referring to Hamas.
The deaths have deepened already bitter divisions among Palestinians, with prime minister Salam Fayyad on Monday blaming top Hamas leaders for the killings.
"Senior officials in Hamas ordered these crimes which were carried out by the Hamas militia in order to terrify the people... Now their punishment is a national duty," Mr Fayyad said in a statement.
Mr Abbas denounced "these horrible crimes committed by a band of rebels... before the eyes of the entire world".
Hamas blamed Fatah gunmen for instigating the clashes, accusing them of firing down on police from the rooftops around the square, but that account was disputed by an AFP correspondent and several witnesses.
Hamas, which is boycotted by Israel and the West as a terrorist group, broke up several smaller Fatah demonstrations on Sunday, the third anniversary of Mr Arafat's death, shooting and wounding three people. © 2007 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
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