The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Gaza City

Hamas rounded up at least 200 Fatah party members in Gaza on Tuesday, the day after Islamist gunmen killed seven people at a mass rally that underscored the deep divisions between rival Palestinians.

The official Palestinian press denounced the killings as a "massacre" while hundreds of Palestinians took to the streets in towns across the occupied West Bank to vent their anger against Hamas.

The Hamas force that has policed Gaza since the Islamist group violently seized power in June "arrested scores of senior Fatah members and members of our branch offices," senior Fatah official Ibrahim Abu al-Naga told AFP.

The raids came after Hamas police violently dispersed hundreds of thousands of people, mostly Fatah supporters, who had massed in the heart of Gaza City on Monday to commemorate Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's death.

Seven people were killed and another 130 wounded, according to medics, in an incident condemned by human rights groups.

Monday's gathering was the largest mobilisation of support for the Fatah party of Arafat and his successor Mahmud Abbas since Hamas routed the secular faction's security forces in bloody clashes five months ago.