Six die as PA cracks down on Hamas in West Bank

Three Palestinian policemen, two Hamas gunmen and a bystander were killed in in a Palestinian Authority crackdown on the rival Islamist movement in the West Bank on Sunday, Palestinian security officials said.

The incident was among the bloodiest internal Palestinian confrontations since U.S.-backed President Mahmoud Abbas pressed a security drive and revived peace talks with Israel after breaking with Hamas over its 2007 takeover of the Gaza Strip.

Security officials said Palestinian police raided the city of Qalqilya before dawn to arrest Hamas members, touching off gunfights. They named the dead Hamas men as Mohammad Yasin and Mohammad Samman. The names of the dead policemen were not immediately given.

The owner of a home in which Hamas gunmen had been hiding was also killed, Palestinian security officials said.

Witnesses said several Hamas gunmen holed up in buildings had ignored calls to surrender.

Abbas's forces have imposed a curfew on the city.

The incident is likely to widen a rift between Fatah and Hamas. Tensions have been high between the rival groups since Hamas Islamists seized the Gaza Strip in June 2007 after routing Fatah forces loyal to Abbas.

Hamas says Abbas's Fatah-dominated security forces are pursuing a crackdown on its activists. The Islamist group said on Saturday that 22 of its activists were arrested in the West Bank.

Fatah denies such arrests are politically motivated. A security official in the West Bank said the individuals arrested on Saturday were involved in hiding weapons, money laundering and incitement to violence.

A spokesman for Hamas in the Gaza Strip said Saturday's arrests were an attempt by Fatah to sabotage Egyptian efforts to reconcile the two rival groups.

Hamas has also accused Fatah of helping Israel hunt down one of its fugitive militants who was killed on Thursday by soldiers who encircled his house near the West Bank city of Hebron.

During unity talks between Hamas and Fatah in Cairo earlier this month, Egypt set a July 7 deadline for a deal to bridge their divisions.