Palestinian human rights groups called for an investigation on Monday into the deaths of at least two Palestinians who they said were illegally detained and tortured by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The body of a Palestinian man was delivered to a hospital Monday, a week after he was abducted by Hamas militants in what appeared to be a new case of vigilante justice by the Islamic group following its takeover of the Gaza Strip.

Mahir Abu Dhalfa , 45, was nabbed last week by Hamas' Executive Force in Gaza City. Early Monday, his body was brought to Shifa Hospital with signs of suffocation, Palestinian medical officials said.

	Advertisement

Hamas promised amnesty for its vanquished Fatah rivals in the Gaza Strip, which the Islamic militant group violently seized last month. But since then, at least nine Fatah loyalists have been killed, according to local human rights workers.

Hamas denies torturing prisoners and has accused Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' forces of detaining at least 300 Hamas members in the West Bank, where Fatah remains dominant, and later releasing the bulk of them.

Another two men were harshly beaten while in Hamas custody, including a German citizen of Palestinian origin, a human rights group said.

Abu Dhalfa was not known to be affiliated with any group, but his brother belongs to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and is sitting in a Hamas prison, relatives said.

Abu Dhalfa's family informed human rights groups at the time of the kidnapping. The groups, however, were denied access to the Hamas compound where Abu Dhalfa was held.

Hamas officials couldn't immediately be reached for comment on the incident.

Abu Dhalfa is the second man to die in Hamas' custody under suspicious circumstances.

Last Tuesday, a 31-year-old man suspected of collaborating with Israel died in Gaza's central prison, operated by Hamas. The prison said the man died of heart failure, but a hospital report said he was strangled.

Earlier this month, The Associated Press documented the ill-treatment of four men who were taken into Hamas custody. One man was tortured, with nails banged into his legs; another two were blindfolded and beaten, to pressure them to provide information on Fatah loyalists; and another two were beaten in a police detention center following a family fight with a rival clan.