GAZA (Islamweb & News Agencies) - Hamas supporters attacked a Palestinian police station in the central Gaza Strip on Friday, witnesses said, as defiance of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's pledge to rein in militants spread.
In Gaza City, a meeting of senior Hamas officials ended without a decision on whether to accede to Arafat's demand that one of the group's military leaders to be handed over to the Palestinian authorities.
Policemen in Deir al-Balah fired in the air to disperse some 500 Hamas militants who had hurled rocks at the police station walls and smashed in the door just after midnight, witnesses said. No casualties were reported.
Witnesses said the crowd chanted ``No to political detention.'' No Hamas supporters were being held in the police station at the time, local residents said.
Arafat has outlawed the military wings of Hamas and other groups, arrested dozens of militant, and called for an end to Resistance bombings and armed attacks on Israelis.
In Jabaliya, in northern Gaza, Hamas officials and police traded blame over a teenager killed in exchanges of fire which erupted after five Hamas men were arrested on Thursday. The gunfire continued sporadically until the early hours of Friday.
At least 14 people were wounded in the shooting.