Fateh spokesperson in Gaza, Fahmi Al Za’areer announced yesterday that four Fateh commanders and cadres were arrested and subsequently abducted in Beit Hanoun at the hands of the Hamas-backed Executive Forces. Among the four was the principal of a Beit Hanoun school.

Executive Forces also raided a demonstration of approximately 150 women in support of Fateh in Beit Hanoun, reportedly beating the demonstrators with nightsticks. Twenty demonstrators were wounded. The women took to the streets in protest of the arrest of the four Fateh leaders, demanding their release.

Fateh sources in the Strip also said Executive Forces later arrested an additional 15 Fateh cadres, including Fateh Secretary of the eastern Gaza regions, Saleh Abu Hamed.

Yesterday’s arrests constituted one of the largest sweeps since Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in June.

While Fateh is charging Hamas officials of arresting their commanders and cadres solely on their political affiliation, Executive Force spokesman Saber Khalifeh denied the allegations, saying the men were arrested on charges of “violating public security.”

Also on Friday, Hamas loyalists took to the streets in protest of the clinical death of Muayad Bani Odeh from the northern West Bank town of Tamoun. Hamas officials and Bani Odeh’s family claim their son died after being tortured in a PA prison in Nablus before being transferred to an Israeli hospital in critical condition.

The family says Bani Odeh was arrested on July 2 by PA security forces from his home in Tamoun and was taken for interrogation to the Jenin Prison. Three days ago, the family says Bani Odeh was transferred to the Jneid Prison in Nablus, where he was tortured before arriving at an Israeli hospital in a state of clinical death.

A spokesperson for the Nablus governorate released a statement following the demonstrations, denying that Bani Odeh had ever been held at the Jneid Prison Facility. The governorate also denied that Bani Odeh was held in any Nablus area facility for any given time.

Hamas officials said it is holding President Mahmoud Abbas, the commander-in-chief of the PA security forces, responsible for Bani Odeh’s critical condition, demanding the release of all Hamas prisoners in PA prisons.