Palestinian sources reported on Saturday morning that the Hamas government in Gaza have arrested at least 40 Fatah members in several parts of the Gaza strip.
The sources added that the Hamas run police raided several Fatah movement offices and confiscated computers and documents.
The latest developments come hours after a homemade bomb targeting Hamas fighters at the Gaza coastal road west of Gaza city detonated killing five fighters and a child on Friday night.
The Fatah movement headed by the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas stated on Saturday that the attack that killed the Hamas fighters is an internal conflict inside the Hamas movement. He denied that Fatah had played any role in the attack.
Meanwhile the Hamas movement in Gaza accused Fatah of being behind the attack and said that an investigation will be conducted and that those responsible for the attack will be arrested.
The Al Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas movement, announced on Saturday in a statement faxed to press, that the group demands those who committed the Friday attack to be punished.
In June 2007, the Hamas movement took total control of the Gaza strip ending months of bloody infighting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party.
Abbas fired the elected Hamas national unity government which is based in Gaza, and formed a caretaker government in the West Bank based in Ramallah city headed by Dr. Salam Fayyad.
