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Three Palestinian police officers, two Hamas fighters and a bystander have been killed in a clash in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian security officials say.
Sunday's confrontation is among the deadliest factional fighting since Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in 2007.
Police from the Palestinian Authority (PA) carried out a dawn raid on a house in the northern West Bank town of Qalqilya in order to arrest the Hamas fighters, sparking a gun battle in the streets, police said.
The two dead fighters were named as Mohammad Samman, the local commander, and Mohammad Yasin, a member, of Hamas's military wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades.
The owner of the house also died in the firefight.
Witnesses said Samman and Yasin had taken refuge in the house.
There were reports of curfew in Qalqilya but the PA denied its imposition.
The incident is sure to further stoke tensions between Fatah, led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and Hamas.
"These kinds of clashes have happened in the past, but these are by far the most serious in the West Bank," Al Jazeera's Nour Odeh, reporting from Ramallah, said.
The bodies of the Hamas commanders and the house owner were buried under tight security, apparently to avoid further confrontation, she said.
The funeral of the PA officers was attended by Salam Fayadh, the Palestinian prime minister; Said Abu Ali, the interior minister; and the entire top brass of the PA's security force.
Abbas, speaking from Amman, Jordan, hailed the security officers for their "professional work", saying that the PA would "strike with an iron fist" anyone who challenges its authority and the law.
Hamas condemnation
Hamas decried the killing over mosque loudspeakers in Gaza City.
Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, said there was no chance of further reconciliation talks with Fatah after the "escalation by security services of Abu Mazen [Abbas] and Fatah against Hamas and its leaders in the West Bank".
He said "Fatah should choose - dialogue with us or doing the dirty work of the Zionist enemy".
Egypt, which is trying to broker a reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah, has set July 7 as the deadline for its efforts.
Abu Obeida, an al-Qassam Brigades spokesman, accused Abbas's forces of playing into Israeli hands by mounting the raid.
"They gave to the Zionist forces more than what the Zionist forces could do," he said.
"We call on the Palestinian people in the West Bank to reject and denounce these acts of the suspicious personnel and to confront and stand up for these high treasons ... the blood of those martyred in Qalqliya will remain a curse and we hold Mahmoud Abbas with direct responsibility."
PHOTO CAPTION
A Palestinian police officer stands guard as he patrols the West Bank city of Ramallah May 30, 2009.
Agencies
