RAMALLAH: Fatah said that its rival Hamas movement arrested 45 of its movement in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday.
The movement said in a press statement that Abdulrahman Hamad, a former minister and a member of Fatah Revolutionary Council, was one of the 45 detainees who were summoned to a Hamas police post.
According to Fatah, most of the arrests took place in southern Gaza Strip towns of Rafah and Khan Younis.
Fatah said the arrests were “provocative,” adding that they came as a part of Hamas’ attempts to prevent Fatah members from traveling to the West Bank to attend their movement’s sixth general convention.
Fatah added that around 400 of its members in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip are awaiting a Hamas permission to travel to Bethlehem where Fatah’s first convention in 30 years is scheduled to convene on August 4.
The convention is to elect a new leadership of the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ movement.
Egypt on Tuesday condemned the Hamas move, saying the decision was “unacceptable.”
