Palestinian police wound two in West Bank raid on Hamas

Palestinian security forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas shot and wounded two people on Sunday during a raid to arrest a Hamas member in the West Bank, local residents told Reuters.

A security source said fighting erupted after residents of Jalazoun refugee camp near Ramallah tried to prevent security forces from detaining Halil Ali, 37, who was taken into custody.

The two wounded men, Ali's cousin and uncle, were being treated in hospital. Their injuries were not life-threatening.

"He was asked to go to meet Palestinian security forces who wanted to question him, but he refused because he was scared as he knew that he could be jailed and tortured," Ali's brother Nidal said.

Tensions between Hamas and the Western-backed Abbas's secular Fatah faction have increased since the Islamist group took control of the Gaza Strip in a brief but bloody civil war two years ago. Fatah still holds sway in the West Bank.

Both sides accuse each other of arresting men from the other faction and of torturing detainees. Last month, nine people from the two factions were killed in fighting in the West Bank town of Qalqilya, where Abbas's forces carried out arrests.

For months, Fatah and Hamas have tried to agree a power-sharing deal in Egyptian-brokered reconciliation talks but have repeatedly missed deadlines for an agreement.