GAZA, Aug 3 (Reuters) - About 30 pro-Fatah Palestinians who fled to Israel after fierce clashes in the Gaza Strip were sent back there on Sunday and were immediately detained by Hamas security forces, a Hamas official said. They were among 180 members of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction granted refuge in Israel on Saturday after nine Palestinians were killed and 95 were wounded during a Hamas assault on their Gaza City neighbourhood. The fighting was the bloodiest since Hamas routed Fatah and took over the coastal enclave a year ago.# "After the (Israeli) occupation refused to receive most of those who fled Gaza, dozens have returned and the Palestinian police have taken them into custody," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said. The fugitives are members of the pro-Fatah Helles clan, which was criticised by Fatah officials in the West Bank for failing to resist Hamas's takeover in June 2007. A spokesman for Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said Abbas had asked Israel to send the Fatah men back to the Gaza Strip. He said the wounded would remain in Israel for treatment and the rest would be returned to the Hamas-held territory. Fatah leader Hussein Al-Shaikh, the senior civil affairs official in the Palestinian Authority, said: "We are discussing with the Israelis how to allow the people to return to Gaza." Saturday's fighting erupted when Hamas forces surrounded the Shejaia district of Gaza City to arrest 11 people suspected of a role in bombings that killed seven people, including five Hamas militants, on July 25. (Writing by Ari Rabinovitch; Editing by Alistair Lyon)
Israeli soldiers guard blindfolded Palestinian men who had escaped to the border with Israel at a military base near Kibbutz Nahal-Oz, just outside the Gaza Strip, August 2, 2008. REUTERS/Amir Cohen ...
